Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari
by Angelina999
Summary: This is MY version of book six and what I would like to happen in Harrys sixth year as he deals with Sirius' death. There are duels in Diagon Alley and Harry, Ron and Hermiones relationships change forever.
1. Harry Potter and the light of the Istari

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Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari

Chapter One

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To be or not to be?! 

The rain was pattering on the roof and in between its splotched patterns on the window pane of number four privet drive, a fifteen year old boy stared absently out in to a dreary July morning. Summer had been and gone in a two week heat wave and now the whole country was once again subject to typical British wet weather. 

Harry Potter sat with his elbows on the window ledge and his hands propping up his head as he leant against the cool glass and pondered his fate as he waited for the morning post. So much had happened in the last year and he was still trying to come to terms with it. He supposed that really he never would fully understand all the things that had happened to him. He still felt an enormous amount of pain whenever he thought about Sirius, his godfather. 

Harry had been out for a walk very early that morning before the rain started, trying to calm his nerves. He had only just got to the end of Privet Drive when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, a large black dog go tearing across a neighbours garden and then start barking. His first thought, again, was that Sirius was back and had come to find him, just as he had thought every time he heard a dog bark since he had returned home from Hogwarts. 

Harry tried to push the painful memories from his mind and concentrate on looking out of his bedroom window for the owl. He could hear Aunt Petunia singing, very badly, downstairs in the kitchen preparing the breakfast, whilst Dudley and Uncle Vernon were yelling at the WWE wrestling on the television in the living room. _"Breakfast is ready"_ Aunt Petunia called through the house. The television went off and after a stamping of feet, the roars of the WWE audience resumed slightly quieter on the TV set in the kitchen. Harry took one final glance out of the window, then trudged downstairs to join his relatives. 

Harry was not really very hungry but at least eating would pass some time. Sliding in to his chair at the kitchen table Harry looked around at what remained of his 'family'. When Harry had been growing up he used to dread the table 'get-togethers' as every time it was_ "look at your hair", "tidy up your clothes"_ or _"don't look at me like that, you should be more grateful", _and Dudley would be pulling faces at him over the table, trying to get him in to more trouble. Now, however, Harry was just ignored, not that he didn't prefer it this way. 

Dudley sat staring at the television, fried egg dripping down from his many chins, silently mouthing insults at the television because Aunt Petunia wouldn't allow him to shout while he was eating. Uncle Vernon had disappeared behind a copy of the Daily Mail that he had propped up against a vase in the middle of the table, adjusted ever so slightly, so that Harry was obscured from his view. Aunt Petunia was the only one to make eye contact with Harry, if only brief glances, seeming anxious that Harry might ask her something when she caught his eye. She would quickly get up to do something at the sink then sit down again, have a mouthful of her breakfast, glance at Harry then the whole sequence was started over again. 

"Petunia will you stop flapping and eat your breakfast" Uncle Vernon's voice boomed over the top of the newspaper. _"Yeah mu.. ur boking my voo"_ said Dudley with a mouthful of sausage and bacon, spraying bits over the table. 

Harry had had so many questions for Aunt Petunia when he had first come home from school but Uncle Vernon has banned him from asking them. At first Harry had tried catching her on her own, but she must have known what he was going to do because she kept shooting from the room. It would have been much easier if Harry could have used a summoning charm to bring her back and keep her there but underage wizards are not allowed to use magic outside of school. Harry had already nearly been expelled the previous year when he had saved his cousin Dudley from a dementor attack. But, Uncle Vernon had threatened to throw him out on the street no matter what Aunt Petunia had promised. Then, like all the other times since Harry had come home and his relatives had raised their voices, Uncle Vernon glanced quickly at the fireplace and Aunt Petunia ran to the window to check the garden path. So far there had been no sign of the Dursleys' warning committee that had greeted them at King's Cross when they met Harry from the school train. 

So, as much as Harry would have liked to leave number four, he thought of what Professor Dumbledore would say if he got himself thrown out of the house. And besides, where else would he go? He didn't think going to Ron's house would be such a good idea because Voldemort was still out there and he could be putting the Weasleys in more danger than they already were. And he really didn't want to return to number 12 Grimmauld Place at the moment, it was too soon. Again Harrys' thoughts turned back to Sirius and the pain came flooding back. It was best, as Dumbledore had said, to stay where he was so that he was protected and so that he couldn't cause the death of someone else he loved. 

Harrys' thoughts were soon brought back to the kitchen at number four, when Uncle Vernon suddenly boomed out_ "Petunia! Open the blasted window quick, don't let the neighbours see them" _Aunt Petunia spun around and two owls landed on the window ledge next to the kitchen door; they were closely followed by a third. Aunt Petunia rose immediately and flung open the door. As the owls flew in she retreated behind Uncle Vernon. _"What in blazes are you playing at Potter"_ Uncle Vernon screeched across the kitchen, _"Nothing for weeks and then three of the damn things turn up at once AND in broad daylight!"_. 

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"I'm sorry Uncle Vernon" Harry replied _"I was only expecting one"_. 

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"Well its still one too bloody many. I agreed to you letting your wretched bird out during the night but I WILL NOT have them turning up during the day!". 

Harry turned to the owls. One was light brown and wearing a Hogwarts crest; the next was a sort of small white version of Pigwidgeon (Ron's owl) and the last was a tawny owl. Harry removed the post from each. The Hogwarts owl took off immediately, did a lap around the kitchen, double flapping his wings as he flew over Uncle Vernon, then darted back out through the kitchen door back in to the rain followed by a roar from Harry's Uncle _"That damn bird, I'm all wet! He did that deliberately". _The other two owls stayed to eat a bit of bacon rind that Harry offered them but at Uncle Vernons roar they took off out the kitchen following the first owl. Aunt Petunia moved quickly to close the door behind them. 

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"Well what is it?" spat Dudley spraying bits of toast all over the table this time. _"I don't know"_ replied Harry staring at the third envelope. _"I think I'll go back up to my room"_. 

Harry gathered his post together, picked up the scraps from the side of his plate that he was saving for Hedwig, then turned and left the kitchen, feeling the glares that were aimed at his back as he went. 

As Harry entered his bedroom Hedwig hooted from her cage in the corner. Harry crossed over his room and put the scraps in for her to eat. Then he went and sat at his desk. He moved aside his History of Magic essay on 'Centaurs and their relationship with the Wizarding community over time' that had been set to do over the holidays, and put his post down. He opened the copy of the Daily Prophet that Hermione had forwarded to him first. He had had to cancel his own subscription because Uncle Vernon had tried to shoot one of the delivery owls with Dudley's slingshot. He scanned it to see if Voldemort or any of his death eaters had been caught yet but it was full of the same usual articles. Reported sightings of You Know Who at different end of the country at the same time, home security tips issued by the Ministry of magic and reports of dementor attacks on non-pure blood wizarding families. 

Harry looked at the picture of Cornelius Fudge that was on the front page. He was running from side to side urging people not to panic; he had bags under his eyes and didn't look at all well. So far he had managed to keep his job as Minister for magic because of the support that Dumbledore had given him. Many people had written in demanding that he should be sacked and replaced by Dumbledore, but Dumbledore had insisted that his place was at Hogwarts and running the Order of the Phoenix, which was now openly recruiting members. Dementor attacks had also increased since the beginning of the holidays. They had all abandoned Azkaban, the Wizard prison, and joined forces with Lord Voldemort. The prison was now being run by goblins and ministry officials including Aurors. Because of the the ministry was having to increase the number of people accepted on Auror training programmes and they standards had been slightly lowered because security staff were spread so thin. Harry sighed, at least now he had some idea of what was going on, Mrs Figg wouldn't tell him too much. He just hoped Hermione was okay. 

Harry moved the paper to one side and opened the next envelope. This one had arrived with the small white owl and Harry didn't have a clue who it could be from. He knew this wouldn't be from Ron or Hermione as they had made their once a week telephone call two days ago. Communication was still being kept to a minimum in case it was intercepted, and they used the telephone because Dumbledore thought that Lord Voldemort would be less likely to tamper with muggle technology rather than the owl post. 

Harry slid the letter out of the envelope and gasped with surprise. Staring up at him was Luna Lovegood and a tall skinny man with thick-rimmed black glasses and light brown hair. Both of them were waving and pointing to a sign in the background that said 'Welcome to Sweden'. Harry turned to the letter that came with the picture. 

Hi Harry, Dad and I have been here for a week now but we still havent found any Crumple Horned Snorkacks. But Dad was talking to this old man yesterday and he's going to take us on a trail through the woods where, he said, he's seen a colony of them. Anyway, just thought I'd write to see how you were because I know how your feeling. Good luck with the OWL results I'll see you soon. 

__

Luna XX 

Harry put down the letter, it was definitely the last thing he had been expecting. But it was now or never, he had been waiting for the last envelope for a month and now it was here he wasn't really sure whether he wanted to open it. He pictured Ron and Hermione sat in their homes holding the envelopes and wished he could be with them both so that they could open the envelopes together. But it was now or never. 

Harry took a deep breathe and tore the Hogwarts seal on the envelope. 


	2. Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari...

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Chapter 2 

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The Witch, the Wardrobe and the Lion 

Harry's hands were shaking as he lifted the flap of the envelope and struggled to pull out the parchment that was inside. There were three pieces, all folded in to one. Reminding himself to breathe, Harry put his thumb on the join and opened out the parchment to read the first page that was on the top. 

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"Harry!" Uncle Vernon bellowed up the stairs _"Stay in your bedroom till we get back. We're going to get Dudley's GCSE results"_. 

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"Yes Uncle Vernon!" Harry called back, and after hearing the thud of the front door, three car doors slamming and the sound of Uncle Vernon's car starting, Harry turned his full attention back the pieces of parchment that he held in his hands. 

****

Dear Mr Potter, 

We are pleased to inform you that your OWL examination results have been received from the Ministry of Magic Examination Board. You will find 

them enclosed along with an application form for you to enter which NEWTs you 

are going to study this year at Hogwarts. Please bear in mind any information that you may have been given during your careers discussion and your enclosed results. 

If it is determined that you have picked a subject that you are not up to standard in, to study then we will contact you shortly. 

Book and equipment lists will follow your return owl, when your final timetable has been confirmed. 

Term begins on 1 September. We are awaiting your return owl. 

Yours sincerely 

Minerva Mcgonagall 

Deputy Headmistress 

Okay, this is it Harry told himself, then he lifted the top piece of parchment away and put it to one side of the desk. 

Ministry of Magic Examination Board 

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OWL Results 

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Harry Potter 

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Subject Grade

Astronomy E 

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Care of Magical Creatures O 

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Charms O 

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Defence Against the Dark Arts O 

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Divination A 

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Herbology O 

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History of Magic A 

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Potions O 

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Transfiguration E 

Grading System: O - Outstanding, E - Exceeds Expectations, 

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A - Acceptable, P - Poor (Fail), 

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D - Dreadful (Fail) 

"Oh my god!" Harry said to himself, throwing his hands up on his head in disbelief. 

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"I did it Hedwig, I passed" he shouted as he bounded across the room to her cage. Harry flung open the cage door and she flew out, soaring around his bedroom ceiling. Landing on the window ledge she looked out longingly in to the grey day. 

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I'm sorry Hedwig, you know I can't let you out yet, it won't be long". Harry sat back down at his desk and looked again at his examination results; if only he had someone to share this moment with. He never dreamed that he would get an 'O' in Potions, an 'E' if he was lucky. He would probably never have even got that if Snape had been in the examination room with him. Professor Snape had picked on Harry ever since the first year and Harry had learned that it had started because Harry's father James had bullied Professor Snape when they were at school together. In the last year, however, it had become more of a personal hate-hate relationship between Harry and Professor Snape and it looked set to continue. Harry looked at the rest of his results. The 'As' in Astronomy and History of Magic seemed very generous as Harry had not completely finished the papers. But surely Dumbledore had no influence on the Examination Board. As for Divination that was a complete miracle! Maybe they took pity on the entire year because of all the upheaval with Professor Trelawney and Umbridge. 

Harry looked at the third piece of parchment that he had to enter his NEWT subjects on. He got up and walked to the window. He knew that he wanted to be an Auror and now he knew that he had the right OWL grades to be able to take the right NEWTS, but he still didn't feel right about sending it off without talking to Ron about his subjects first. 

But it had to be done, so Harry returned to his desk and filled in the form. As he sealed it in to the envelope he realised he had no way of sending it. Feeling frustrated he sat on the bed. No he thought to himself, this is important; so he called Hedwig over, addressed the envelope to Hogwarts and then tied it too her leg. 

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"You'll have to stay out Hedwig, till dawn tomorrow, that way Uncle Vernon may not notice that you have gone. Stop at Ron's if you need to rest". 

With that, Harry opened his bedroom window and Hedwig flew out. Harry leant out of the bedroom window and watched her go. Across the road Mrs Figg waved from her front doorstep, Harry ignored her. Just as he was pulling his head back in through the window he glimpsed the Dursleys' car turning on to Privet Drive. Quick as a flash he was back in with the window shut, praying that they hadn't noticed him. 

Clunk, clunk, slam!!! The car doors closed and the front door flew open, banging against the table that held the mail, beside it. 

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"I still don't believe it! How can they say he failed, I thought they were all complaining they were too easy! Eight GCSEs, he took EIGHT, and he only scrapped through three. 

And English, HOW can he fail English, he SPEAKS it every blasted day! I want them remarked; I don't care about the cost". 

Harry guessed that Uncle Vernon was not happy. Curious as to which three exams Dudley had passed, he ventured out on to the landing so that he could hear more clearly. 

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"Private school, I sent him to and they can't even help him pass a couple of exams. What WAS the point? Hmph. What use is History, media studies and general studies to him? What's he going to do now?" 

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"Well, he could come work for you" suggested Aunt Petunia. 

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"Work for me?!" roared Uncle Vernon "according to them, he can't count and he can't speak English, HOW can he WORK for me!" 

Harry giggled to himself; this day just could not get any better. Harry guessed that Dudley passed history because it was about fighting. He walked downstairs and went in to the kitchen. Walking in to the living room while Uncle Vernon was in mid-rant was not a good idea even if it wasn't about Harry, for a change. As Harry was getting himself a glass of water, Aunt Petunia came in and went to switch the kettle on. As she turned to leave she looked back to Harry _"I expect that letter was your OWL results earlier"_ she stated rather than asked. 

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"Um yes. I passed all nine of them, I got five 'O's" replied Harry. 

Aunt Petunia's face remained passive but she answered _"well that's good"_ and then as she was turning and walking out she added _"Lily would have been proud". _As the living room door shut again Harry wasn't sure what to do. It was the very last thing he expected to hear his Aunt saying but he was happy all the same. Because it came from her, it just seemed to feel truer. Harry wasn't sure whether to smile or cry. Hearing Uncle Vernon start bellowing again in the living room, he headed out of the front door and down the garden path. 

It had stopped raining now but it was still very wet. As Harry went through the gate at the end, he saw Mrs Figg again shuffling down her path. _"Harry!" _she called, 

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"Could you give me a hand for a moment dear?" 

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"Yes he will" Uncle Vernon called from behind Harry; he must have heard the front door click Harry thought to himself. _"Keep him as long as you want, bout time he made himself useful"_ and with that he shut the front door again. 

Harry took himself in to Mrs Figgs' house, not wanting to have another session of her asking him questions about the Department of Mysteries, and then refusing to answer his. _'I can't tell you Harry, Dumbledores' orders. He doesn't want you to risk leaving that house. If something really important happens that he thinks you must know, then he will tell you himself'_. That was all Harry had heard so far this summer when he had asked her any questions. 

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"Come in, come in, sit down" she said ushering him in to the living room. _"What's with the paper chains?"_ Harry asked. 

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"Ah, that's your surprise! But don't tell me how you did yet, I need you to come upstairs and help with the wardrobe". 

Harry followed Mrs Figg upstairs in to the back bedroom. It was decorated with lots of little porcelain cats and she had put photographs of her own cats all around the walls. _"Do you want it moved?"_ Harry asked her. 

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"No, no, just give it a minute" she replied. Grinning to himself and wondering what the wardrobe could possibly do by itself, as Mrs Figg was a squib; Harry watched it intently. 

All of a sudden there was a bang and the doors burst open. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George were piled on the floor in a heap or arms and legs.

"Surprise!" they called. _"Quickly, quickly shut the doors for the next lot"_

Mrs Figg cried. Harry jumped over them and closed the doors. No sooner had they stood up and moved to the side than the doors burst open again and Mr Weasley, Remus Lupin and Tonks spilled out. _"Surprise!"_ they called out as well. Harry was grinning from ear to ear, _"What are you all doing here?"_

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"It's a joint party" Hermione explained _"It's a passing our OWLS, Happy Birthday Harry party!"_

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"Yeah" said Ron "_Just your luck to get the exam results the day before you birthday! Mum wanted to have the party tomorrow but we figured you'd already be crawling the walls by now"_. 

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"Lets all move downstairs, shall we dears, there's not enough room to swing a cat in here" Mrs Figg called over all the heads from the doorway. 

They all went downstairs and Mrs Figg opened the double doors dividing the living room from the dining room. Harry gasped. Inside, the table was covered with food and a pile of presents were stacked nearby. The whole room was covered with paper chains like the living room. 

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"I got 10 'O's burst Hermione, unable to contain herself any longer. _"I win"_ laughed Ron and Hermione spun round confused. _"Ron bet it'd take you six minutes before you told Harry"_ laughed Fred _"I said two minutes and George said thirty seconds, so Ron was the closest". _Everybody laughed while Hermione went bright red. _"What did you get Ron?" _Harry asked, happy now that he had people to share his results with. _"I got 5 O's, 3 E's and 1 A. I can't believe it"_ Ron answered. 

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"Yeah they must have got his results mixed up with someone else's" added George. 

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"How bout you Harry?" Ron asked. _"I got 5 O's, 2 E's and 2 A's; I've got my results here"_ Harry took his results out of his pocket. _"Me too" _shouted Ron and Hermione together, and they passed the parchments around. 

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"You got the same ones as me Ron except for History of Magic" Harry said. 

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"These are really good Harry" added Hermione. For the first time in ages Harry genuinely felt happy. He was with his friends again, with the people he loved. 

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"What NEWTs are you all doing" Harry suddenly thought to ask. _"Well I've applied for potions, transfiguration, charms, defence against the dark arts, care_ _of magical creatures and herbology"_ said Ron. _"That's what I put!" _screeched Hermione and Harry at the same time._ "I'm taking arthrimancy too"_ said Hermione _"I figured I could drop one again if it was too much and I'm not entirely sure what I want to do yet anyway". "Oh Auror training definitely"_ said Ron. 

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"That's if their still desperate" quipped George from behind him. _"I can just see you standing in the middle of a muggle street aiming your wand at a death eater Ron,_ _repelling a jinx and hitting Harry with it!!!" _laughed Fred from across the room. 

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"I think Ron would make a good Auror" huffed Hermione. 

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"Depends if they've got you to help them" replied George. _"Well they may do, I haven't decided yet"._

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"Oi, when you four have finished, what about the food and the presents!" called Fred now at the dining room table, cautiously poking a cheese and pineapple chunk stick with one finger and a mini sausage roll with another. 

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"Presents first" Lupin answered, and they all joined Fred in the dining room. 

"Okay, this one is from me" said Ron picking up the present on the top of the pile and passing it to Harry _"Happy Birthday"_. Harry tore off the paper and held up 'Advanced Quidditch for the Seriously Talented' by Ludo Bagman and Matilda Claiborne. _"It's new out" _said Ron._ "Matilda Claiborne used to be a chaser for England twelve years ago"_ said Fred. _"Yeah she's written almost all the book but the publishers took on Bagman to try and boost sales"_ added George. _"Supposed to be really good though"._

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"Thanks guys" said Harry as Lupin passed him another rectangular present._ "That's from me Harry"_ said Hermione. _"I'm guessing it's a book!"_ laughed Harry. He ripped back the silver wrapping paper to find 'Advanced jinxes guaranteed to get you out of any sticky situation". _"Gee thanks Hermione, we can use these for our meetings". "Oh we're still having them then?" _asked Ron. _"Well we kind of really need them now more than ever don't we!" _replied Harry. 

Harry carried on opening his presents. He had a box of assorted sweets from Fred and George that had 'Weasleys Wizardly Wheezes' on the front. There were canary creams, ton tongue toffees and new ones called smokey joes, that made your ears steam and square surprises that made different parts of your body flash red. He also had a pair of socks with different colour lions on them from Dobby and Winky. Tonks had bought him a book of practical disguises and Mad Eye Moody sent him a foe glass with an extra note attached to it. 

Dear Harry, 

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remember CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!! Keep this 

****

out somewhere where you can always see it. Trust no one, except 

Dumbledore, and always be on your guard. Look forward to seeing you 

****

soon, have some jinxes to teach you. 

****

Alastor Moody 

Lupin passed him the next present. It was in a shiny purple cardboard box. Harry took off the lid and lifted aside the purple tissue paper that was on the top. 

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"It's from me, Arthur, Molly and Arabella" said Lupin. Harry lifted out a black leather photo album; it had a gold embroidered Gryffindor lion on the front. Harry guessed what would be inside and didn't really want to open it but as he looked up, all his friends were looking at him and smiling and he knew that he had to. On the first page someone had written in big gold letters 'My Family'. On the second page was the photo of the Order of the Phoenix that Mad Eye had shown him while he was at Sirius' last year. Faces of witches and wizards smiled up at him waving, some of them he knew and some he had never had the chance to know, including his parents. Harry carried on turning the pages. There were pictures of him growing up that, he guessed, were taken by Mrs Figg as they were muggle 'still' shots and had cats in the background. Then there were pictures of him, Ron and Hermione around Hogwarts and some of all the Weasleys too. _"We got the one's of us at school from Colin" _piped up Hermione leaning over Harry's shoulder as turned over another page to come face to face with Sirius. It was a young Sirius in a Hogwarts uniform and he was stood beside Lupin, Wormtail and Harrys' father. 

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"We found that in with Sirius' things, along with some of the others" said Tonks. The next six pages were all old photographs of Sirius, James, Peter, Remus and Lily. Dumbledore and Mcgonagall were in a few too. Harry's heart sank as he looked at another photograph of a smiling, happy Sirius. 

__

"Um maybe we should move on to the next one" Lupin suggested, seeing the sad look on Harry's' face. 

He passed Harry an envelope and a silver box. The envelope had Harry's' name on it in emerald green ink. Harry knew that this was from Dumbledore. He opened the envelope first, and a birthday card and a letter came out. _"Ah if you give me that card Harry dear, I'll put it with the others. We thought you could save them for tomorrow" _said Mrs Figg. Harry passed the card over and turned his attention to the letter. 

Dear Harry, 

****

I know how much use you are getting out of your fathers' 

cloak and because of recent events I thought it was time you had this. 

I confiscated it off your father and Sirius when they were in their last 

year at hogwarts. It will show you anyone who is disguised or invisible 

and will only show magic folk. I am sure it will not take you long to 

work out how to use it! 

****

All Sirius' belongings have been boxed so that you can sort through them 

when you are ready. You only need to remain at your aunt and uncles' 

house for one more week. You can remain there of course if you wish, 

but you are more than welcome to join us all at headquarters if you are 

feeling up to it. There is plenty of work to do and as you are of age 

tomorrow, there is much that you can learn. 

****

Yours sincerely 

****

Albus Dumbledore 

Harry put the letter aside and opened the box. He lifted out a silver hand held mirror that it had paw prints etched around the sides. _"Ah"_ said Lupin _"I wondered what had happened to that. Have you got your wand Harry?"_

Harry pulled out his wand from under his t-shirt and tapped the top of the mirror. Silver writing appeared on it. 

"Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs 

****

Purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers 

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are proud to present 

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The Mirror of Reflection 

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Tap once with your wand and say 'illusion revealum' to see 

****

those around you for what they really are." 

All the writing faded from the surface of the mirror. Harry lifted it up and put it in front of his eyes. As he looked around the room he saw that everyone had a white light surrounding them. All except Mrs Figg whose light was a pale green. Harry carried on turning, looking round the room when he came to Tonks. He moved the mirror away from his face to look at her just to check and then moved it back._ "You have light brown hair normally"_ Harry said bemused. _"Yeh, I get easily bored, thought I'd be orange today"_ said Tonks. 

Before Harry could ask Lupin about Mrs Figg and what the light meant, Fred and George shouted in unison _"FOOD!" _and everyone proceeded to fill their plates with sandwiches and sausages rolls.


	3. Harry Potter and the light of the Istari...

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Chapter Three

The Lessons 

As they ate Harry, Ron and Hermione chatted about what they had done so far in the holidays and Hermione filled Harry in on what was happening with the 'Order'. 

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"There are loads of new member, Mrs Weasly is run off her feet". "Yeah" said Ron _"We've been helping with all the filing and stuff. Its dead boring but you do pick up some bits of information that are not in the papers"._

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"Oh" said Harry _"You're not at home then". _Like last summer, Harry again started to feel left out. And, after all, he had been hoping to go to the burrow when he left Privet Drive. 

Ron saw Harry's' face drop and knew what he was thinking. _"We have to stay at the Order Harry; Dumbledore didn't think it was safe for us to be at home, not now that Voldemort knows mum and dad are helping him"._

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"And he was worried about us too" Hermione added. _"After what happened in the Department of Mysteries, with us helping you, Dumbledore thought he might come after us too, so we're all staying there. That is, I mean, Me, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George. Neville's grandmothers' not been very well so they're staying with relatives and Luna is on holiday with her dad for the summer"._

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"I know she sent me a letter" replied Harry still not feeling any happier. 

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"Really?" grinned Ron. _"Any way, you're safer where you are at the moment Harry, but when you come we've got loads to show you. Hermione and I have been learning to ... OW!" _Ron bent down and rubbed his ankle. _"That's a surprise"_ Hermione glared at Ron. _"Well it can't be a very good one by the look on your face"_ Harry replied indifferently. Seeing that Harry was not in the mood to hear anymore about the Order, Hermione decided to change the subject. _"How's Luna then?"_

"When you three have finished your little coven meeting, some of the rest of us would like to talk to Harry before we go" interrupted Lupin, who had walked over to them with Mrs Weasley and Tonks. Fred and George were busy in a corner showing Mrs Figg their fake wands that changed into rubber haddocks. _"We've made arrangements to come pick you up next week on the 7th August Harry" _said Tonks. _"It'll be at midnight so you can tell your Aunt and Uncle that no one will see"._

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"Great" said Harry still feeling depressed. _"You do want to come, don't you Harry" _said Mr Weasley looking concerned. Harry paused for a moment. _"Yeah sure, it'll just be, well … hard"_ he answered looking at the floor, unable to look Mr Weasley or Lupin in the eye. 

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"It's okay Harry, we understand; but you will have to come to the house eventually and we will all be there with you" said Lupin sympathetically. _"And you wont really recognise the place anyway and there's lots to do"_ added Hermione trying to sound cheerful. Harry managed a weak smile as he looked at their expectant faces. _"Cant wait"_ he said,_ "and it would be nice to feel like I'm helping instead of just sitting round"._

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"Good then it's all sorted" said Mr Weasley. _"Right we have to go soon, there's just enough time to walk you home Harry if we are quick, you'll need help with all your presents"._

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"Oh I'd better do that Arthur" said Mrs Figg. _"You can't let the Dursleys see you all coming out of my house"._

__

"Of course, your right Arabella, why don't you come upstairs then Harry and see us all off at the wardrobe". 

So everyone turned and traipsed back up the stairs to the back bedroom. _"Right Fred, George, Hermione and Ron first"_ said Mr Weasley._ "See ya Harry"_ Fred and George called as they stepped in to the wardrobe. 

__

"We'll see you next week harry" added Hermione as she and Ron climbed in after them. _"Bye Harry"_ said Ron gloomily as Mr Weasley struggled to close the doors after them. Tonks looked at her watch _"3, 2, 1", _there was a flash of white light that showed through the slits of the wardrobe door and they were gone. 

__

"Right, come on then" said Mr Weasley as he opened the doors and climbed into the empty wardrobe. _"I'll ring to check on you during the week Harry"_ said Lupin as he and Tonks followed Mr Weasley in to the wardrobe. _"Bye"_ said Harry as Mrs Figg closed the wardrobe doors on them. After a minute there was another flash of light and they were all gone and Harry was left alone with Mrs Figg. _"Well I hope you enjoyed your surprise dear"._

__

"Yes thank you" Harry replied. _"Well lets go sort your presents out, I've just been thinking maybe we could but it all in a box for you to take back so your Aunt and Uncle wont see what it is. And then we could put some of the leftover party food in as well for you to have tomorrow"_. 

Harry followed her back downstairs and helped pack his things in to a cardboard box. It wasn't really that heavy so he told her he could manage to carry it himself. He thanked Mrs Figg for all the food and decoration, then made his way down her garden path, as she waved from the doorstep. He had just got into the hallway of number four when Uncle Vernon peered around the living room door. _"What you got there boy!" _he boomed, his moustache twitching as if itching for a fight. 

__

"Uh, it's just some er … clothes of Mrs Figgs that she asked me to patch. She can't see that well to do it herself now" thought Harry quickly. _"Ah good, well get on with it then" _Uncle Vernon said as his head disappeared back in to the living room. Harry went upstairs. 

Harry stared around him, everything was black. All he could see were his hands as he lifted them in front of his face and wiggled his fingers. He stretched his arms out in front of himself to try and feel his way to the door. But there was no door. He could feel himself floating along in the darkness. He called out _"Hello, who's there?", _but nobody answered. A breeze started blowing around him and then he thought he heard somebody whispering behind him. He tried to turn around but he couldn't. _"Hello"_ he called again starting to panic, _"Who's there?" _Then all of a sudden he heard a loud rushing, whistling sound above his head as something was falling through the air towards him. Harry looked up and was filled with a sudden horror at what he saw. Then the scream started, piercing the air, louder than the whistling. Sirius was falling down through the blackness from a small light above. Harry could see his face as he screamed Harry's name and waved his arms about trying to grab at nothing. He had a gash down the right side of his head and had a look of utter terror on his face. He was falling fast, and Harry reached out to try and catch him. But Sirius fell a few metres in front of him and kept falling. Unable to move Harry had to watch his back, as he continued down in to the darkness. 

__

"Sirius!" Harry screamed as he jumped up in his bed dripping with sweat and breathing heavily. It took a few minutes for Harry to recognise the things around him as he tried to calm down. 

He got out of bed and went to switch the light on. He sat back on the bed and looked at the clock. It was 5.13am. Then he thought to himself, "Happy Birthday Harry". He looked at his box of presents that was in the corner of the room where he had left it the previous evening. He hadn't wanted to open it again then, as thinking of the photo album filled him with dread. But Harry went over to it now and lifted out the cards that Mrs Figg had placed on the top. He opened the cards one by one and put them on the desk. Somehow, thinking of Ron and Hermione helped calm him and he felt a bit better. He went to the window and looked out, it was still dark outside. Leaving the light on, Harry climbed back in to bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. He fell asleep again almost immediately and the dream started all over, just as it had every night for the last two months. 

The next few days passed very quickly. Harry spent most of his time in his room reading the books he had been given for his birthday and making notes on jinxes and disguises for the next DA meetings. He did, however, leave the photo album in its purple box. He only had two days left to go until he left Privet Drive and he was starting to look forward to it. Harry was putting the book Ron had given him away in the box when he remembered the mirror. He pulled it out and reread Dumbledore's note. Taking out his wand, he tapped the glass and said _"illusion revealum". _The glass seemed to flicker for a moment then went back to normal and Harry walked over to his bedroom window. As he looked out he held the mirror up to his eyes and looked around Privet Drive. Everything seemed normal until he leaned further out of the window and looked down to see Professor Mcgonagall striding across Uncle Vernon's' front garden. Harry dropped his hands in shock. As the mirror moved from his eye-line however, he saw that it was a tabby cat making its way across the lawn. There had always been a lot of cats around Privet Drive and then Harry giggled to himself as he realised 'So that's another way that they've been watching me'. 

Harry lifted the mirror up again just as the cat was going around the side of the house to check, and yes, it definitely was Professor Mcgonagall.

There was a knock at his bedroom door and Aunt Petunia walked in. _"I need you to go out for a couple of hours. Vernon has guests coming for lunch and we don't want any … disruptions. What's that?" _and she pointed to Harry's' hands.

__

"It's a mirror" he replied raising it up for her to see. As he did so however, he caught her reflection on the surface. Remembering that muggles could not be seen in the mirror he held it up higher. Aunt Petunia had a pale green light around her like Mrs Figg. Harry's' mouth dropped wide open as he looked up at her amazed. She, however, had turned and was starting to leave _"well you have fifteen minutes so you'd better put that away and get your coat" _and then she was gone. 

Harry reopened the door and went out on to the landing. What did it mean; he thought to himself, it gave him a whole new set of questions that Harry wanted the answers to. She was already downstairs in the kitchen with Uncle Vernon now though, so there was no chance to double check what he had seen. Harry turned to go back in to his bedroom and met Dudley coming the other way. 

__

"Move it" growled Dudley as he pushed past. Remembering the mirror, Harry lifted it up again towards the back of a wobbling Dudley. There was, however, no image reflected. Dudley takes after Uncle Vernon again then, Harry thought to himself, glad that the magic hadn't reached this side of the family; Dudley would definitely be a Slytherin. 

Harry went back in to his room, put his shoes on and then left the house.

An hour later he was wandering down Little Whinging High Street looking in the shop windows. The rain had stopped today but it still didn't feel like summer. Bored with the shops Harry turned down a side street to head towards the park. Soon after he was sat on the grass next to a small pond, watching a couple of ducks floating round on it. The swings were busy so Harry had chosen to sit here instead, watching the people all around him. Gangs of kids were playing football or wandering in groups looking for something to do, mothers and fathers were playing with small children and an elderly lady was sat on a wooden bench doing her knitting. Everybody was walking around passing the time, completely oblivious to all the strangers around them. As Harry sat watching he wondered what each of them could be thinking. What little or big problems they could be trying to work out in their heads, or even if they were as content and happy as some of them seemed to be. Maybe if he had stuck with the occlumency lessons then he could have found out. 

After half an hour Harry got bored and decided to make his way home and see if the coast was clear. As he made his way back he wondered about what he was going to do when he finished at Hogwarts. He was older now and he'd be out on his own soon. Maybe he could stay at the burrow with the Weasleys or maybe live with Ron on their own somewhere. Who knows, maybe it will never even happen, I might not live to finish school, Harry thought to himself, kicking a discarded drinks can that was sitting in the middle of the pavement. 

As he looked up to follow its path, he saw a grey tabby cat come running down the road towards him. As it neared it looked from side to side and then still running changed in to the human form of Professor Mcgonagall. _"What are you doing staying out so long? I've been looking for you everywhere"._

"What's wrong? What's happened?" came Tonks' voice from behind him. Harry spun round; standing in front of him was the old lady who had been knitting on the bench.

I really need to start carrying that mirror around with me, thought Harry to himself.

__

"There are reports of dementors in the area again and mundungus swears blind he just saw Bellatrix Lestrange on the High Street. Professor Dumbledore wants you to leave here now Harry".

Tonks withdrew her wand from her pocket and started scanning the street up and down. _"Here down this alley, its quiet" _said Professor Mcgonagall, _"Have you got it, Nymphadora?"_

"Yes Professor" she answered as she pulled a shoebox out of her knitting bag. _"Right grab a hold Harry it's a port key, it'll take the three of us to headquarters"._

"What about my things and why are you carrying a port key round with you?" Harryasked Tonks.

__

"Your things have been taken ahead now just grab a corner Harry" snapped Professor Mcgonagall. Harry placed a hand on the shoebox along with Mcgonagall and Tonks. The Professor took out her wand and tapped the shoebox. Instantly Harry jerked forward and shut his eyes as the force of the wind blew back his hair and pulled at his skin. Then as suddenly as it had started, it stopped and the three of them stood in Grimmauld Place a couple of houses down from number twelve.

"Quickly Harry, up to the house" said Tonks still scanning her surroundings for possible assailants. They all rushed forward and made their way up the steps to number twelve. But even before Tonks could raise her hand to knock the door it was flung open and Mrs Weasley stood inside the hallway.

__

"Get in quickly, come on, oh my, are you all right Harry dear?" Harry didn't even have time to answer before he was swept in to a hug. The front door was shut and everybody moved down towards the kitchen past the stuffed house elf heads.

__

"We heard the news, we were all worried sick, what were you doing wandering off on your own Harry, you know it's not safe" Mrs Weasley asked.

Harry looked around himself as they stepped in to the kitchen, it had been decorated lemon and the table had been moved round; and there at the end of it were Ron, Hermione and Mr Weasley.

****

__

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione shouted in unison, jumping up out of their chairs.

__

"Hi guys, what happened to the kitchen?" Harry replied. _"Oh well, I hope you don't mind Harry dear, but as we spend so much time in here I though the place could do with a bit of colour, to make it a bit more cheery. I can take it off if you don't like it though" _said Mrs Weasley raising her wand to the lemon stone walls.

__

"I don't understand" said Harry _"Why would I mind about the kitchen walls?"_

"Well it's yours now Harry isn't it" said Ron. _"What, the kitchen?" _replied Harry.

__

"No you dunce" answered Hermione _"the house and all that's in it, Sirius left them to you". "Yeah, bad luck mate, you've inherited Kreacher!"_ chuckled Ron.

__

"Ron!" scolded Hermione _"We've discussed this, Kreacher is grieving so you have to be nice to him, he doesn't mean to do what he does". "Yeah right" _Ron answered quietly looking side ways at Hermione then rolling his eyes up to the ceiling for only Harry to see.

__

"I still don't understand, why did I get the house and why Kreacher? I'm not a Black, and its headquarters for the Order isn't it?"

"Come sit down Harry" said Mr Weasley. _"Dumbledore thought that you needed a bit more time to deal with Sirius' … leaving us before he burdened you with anymore. Sirius left all his belongings to you in his will, except for a few small bits and pieces"._

"Yeah, I got a wicked chess set" said Ron _"and Hermione got a stack load of books"._

"Yes, well" continued Mr Weasley _"So Dumbledore thought that until you were ready to decide what you wanted to do with his things, we would carry on using the house for the Order"._

"It's not the main headquarters know though, they have a room in the Ministry for all the official stuff; so we're still hidden and it's still safe to be here" said Hermione.

__

"But what about Kreacher?"

"Well dear, it's kind of … umm …" Mrs Weasley shifted awkwardly in her seat. _"Well, before he died Harry, Sirius had Dumbledore sign some paperwork; that was, when he was still Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. It was to be a surprise for your birthday. He was ever so excited". _

"It wasn't totally official at the time, it couldn't be put through the ministry because they were still looking for him of course" said Mr Weasley _"but because of Dumbledore's position, it was still legal"._

"What was?" exclaimed Harry trying to get to the point of the conversation.

__

"Well Sirius signed adoption papers, to adopt you Harry; we witnessed them and Dumbledore officiated them. He was going to give them to you for your birthday".

Harry felt a huge lump rise in his throat and he felt sick. Tears rose up in his eyes and he had to turn in his chair to stop everyone looking, as all his grief came flooding back to him. It was like losing Sirius all over again

__

"Harry? Are you okay?" asked Hermione, who was squeezing his shoulder ever so gently to see if he was all right. Harry was still lost in his own thoughts, it was such a shock.

__

"But if it was when Dumbledore was in the Wizengamot, then it was last summer, why didn't he tell me; or you?"

"He was hoping to be able to make it official properly first" said Mr Weasley _"we had some leads on where Peter Pettigrew might have been hiding and he thought if he could clear his name first then you could be a proper family, and everyone would know. It wasn't until February that we lost track of Peter so Sirius decided to give you the papers for your birthday. And now that the ministry has accepted Dumbledore's story of Sirius' innocence, the adoption papers have been recognised and, with his will as well, you are officially the owner of this house and a descendant of the Black family too. Which is why you have Kreacher"._

__

"Have a cup of tea Harry, it's a lot to deal with I know but you don't need to worry about it too much now. Dumbledore will be along later to talk to you. He was most upset when they lost track of you earlier" said Mrs Weasley, rummaging around in a cupboard and pulling out a tin of ginger snaps. 

__

"I told them they should have used those talkie walkie things but they didn't listen" said Mr Weasley. Harry couldn't help but smile at that. 

A large bang erupted behind him, _"Harry!" _came Remus Lupin's voice as the door crashed against the wall because of the force that it was opened with. _"Are you all right? I see your Aunt and Uncle are still the same happy people that we met at the station!"_

"Yeh" said Fred, as he came in the kitchen behind Lupin. He was wearing a bright red scaly suit, with a matching tie. _"Your Uncle went purple when he saw Moody walking up the path; and all we saw of your cousin was his bum disappearing up the stairs!"_

"What were you doing at my house?" asked Harry as George sauntered in wearing the same suit as Fred. 

__

"Well we were all out looking for you but when we got the messages from Mrs Tibbles that Minerva ad you; we went to your house to collect your things. Your aunt and uncle weren't too keen on us being in the house but I think we got everything. Alastor has just taken it all upstairs. You'll have to check it later so that we can go back and get anything that e might have missed" Lupin answered.

They had just all sat down when Tonks and Mad Eye Moody came in to the room. Harry realised now why Uncle Vernon had gone purple. Mad Eye Moody was wearing a pair of fluorescent pink shell suit bottoms with a black long sleeved cotton shirt and his black cloak thrown over the top.

__

"Sit down Alastor" Mrs Weasley directed him to chair _"I've made you a cup of tea; no milk, no sugar just how you like it"_. As Moody sniffed his drink and stared in to the bottom of the cup looking for anything that shouldn't be in there, Mrs Weasley turned and shouted _"Tonks!" _But it was too late; there was a huge crash as a pile of plates on a table top in the corner smashed over the stone floor. 

__

"Sorry Molly, I was looking to see if we had any cauldron cakes left". "Their not in there, sit down and I'll get them" said Mrs Weasley as she swept up all the bits of plates off the floor with her wand on to the table, _"Reparo"._

As Harry drank his tea everyone filled him in on what they had been doing so far over the summer. Members of the Order had been helping set up the second office in the Ministry. Now that the Ministry had officially recognised that Voldemort was back, the Order of the Phoenix was working alongside Ministry officials to promote home and personal security, and to coordinate sightings of death eaters. The Order had recruited hundreds of new members and it was the member's duty to keep watch on their local area and report anything out of the ordinary. Mr Weasley was telling a very funny story about a witch called Dora Winkle who cursed her neighbours' cat because she thought it was looking at her funny, when Mrs Weasley sent them all upstairs so that she could get supper ready.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George went upstairs to Harry and Ron's bedroom. As Hermione closed the door Harry looked around the room and saw his trunk at the end of his bed and Hedwig sitting in her cage on top of the wardrobe. 

__

"You are all right Harry mate aren't you?" asked Ron as he sat on his bed next to Fred and George. _"I mean, that was a huge shock about Sirius' adopting you, we all just thought he left it to you in his Will"._

"What, you mean you never knew?" Harry realised he had been so amazed by the news himself that he hadn't even looked at Ron or Hermione.

__

"No of course not Harry" Hermione said, clearly offended _"How could you even think that we wouldn't tell you something important like that. I mean inheriting the house is one thing but the adoption is way too big a secret to keep from your best friend"._

"I'm sorry; I've just been feeling so left out of things not knowing what was happening and with the phone calls about the weather and all. And you said you had a surprise for me, last week in Mrs Figgs' house".

"We didn't know Harry" said Ron _"and that definitely wasn't your surprise"._

"Well go on and show him then" said Fred grinning. _"Ok, we have been dying to show you this for weeks Harry … after three Ron, one … two … three". _There were popping noises as both Ron and Hermione both disappeared from their sitting positions on the beds and re-emerged again over by the bedroom door. 

_"Surprise, what do you think? Dumbledore got special permission for us to take our tests early because of all the danger we've been in. He thought it would give us an extra chance to get away if we were to get cornered again" _explained Hermione _"I thought that was why he wanted to see you tonight, because he wanted you to get started as soon as possible too. You have to learn the theory first but you'll do fine and we can help you"._

"We're not supposed to do it unless we're in danger really, until after our birthdays but Dumbledore said we could practice around the house as long as we are on our own" said Ron.

__

"So what else have you been doing?"

"Well like we told you last week we've been helping with the filing" explained Hermione. _"Most of the paperwork is done in the ministry office but a lot of the files with member names, addresses and top secret stuff is brought here for safekeeping so we've been helping Mrs Weasley organise it"._

"Yeah" said Ron, _"Mum deals with the secret stuff, seals it and locks it away, but you can still learn stuff from the papers we deal with; you just have to make sure Mum doesn't catch you reading it. She thinks the less we know the less trouble we can get in to"._

"And how little she knows it!" added Fred smugly. _"Oh, how's the joke shop going?" _asked Harry. _"Too many orders, not enough time" _answered George. _"The mail order side is flying out and we have a three day waiting list before we can get the orders filled; and the shops really busy too. We've had to take on more staff". "We figured that with all the bad stuff happening people want something to make them laugh. You'll have to come and see the shop Harry before you go back to school" _added Fred.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and Mr Weasley came in. _"Suppers ready. Your mother said to hurry up and get downstairs because Harry needs to eat quickly so Dumbledore can see him before he leaves". "Dumbledore's here?_" asked Harry.

__

"Yes, he is in a meeting in the drawing room; now get a move on".

"Who's he meeting dad?" asked George. _"None of your business now get downstairs". _With a pop, Fred and George had vanished. _"We'll walk down with you Harry". _

Harry ate his supper quickly while all the others talked about what they had done during the day. Mrs Weasley told them about the postcard she had gotten from Ginny, who was staying with one of her Hufflepuff friends for a couple of weeks in Wales. She was due back in a couple of days. Mr Weasley was just explaining about his problems with a runaway park bench, complete with muggle riders when Percy walked in to the kitchen.

__

"Hiya Harry did you have a nice birthday?" "Hi Percy yeah tha…" but Harry didn't finish his sentence as he realised who had just sat opposite him. _"Here's your supper Percy dear_" said Mrs Weasley, fussing around him as she gave him a huge plate of sausage and mash. Harry gazed open-mouthed at the Weasley that was sat across from him. Over to his left, Ron started laughing; "_it's okay Harry it was all a trick so that Dumbledore would know what was happening in Fudges' office"._

"Yes well, he still should have told me and Arthur" said Mrs Weasley rather gruffly. It was obviously a sore point. _"I am sorry that I ignored you at your hearing Harry but I had too. It's like I sent that letter too. I had to send it because Minister Fudge was getting suspicious. Lucius Malfoy had kept having meetings with him and refusing to say anything with me in the room and he told Minister Fudge it was because Dumbledore could have planted me there to spy on him. I also realised that they were intercepting my mail to keep an eye on me so I had to send Ron that letter to try and throw them off the scent, so to speak. That's why nobody could know because it made the whole story more convincing"._

"So are you still working at the Ministry?" Harry asked.

__

"Yes. Dumbledore apologised to Minister Fudge and he let me keep my job. He said I was the best assistant he's ever had!"

"That's because he's totally inept too!" laughed Fred. _"Nonsense, George stop winding up your brother, I've told you before". "I'm Fred!"_

"Hmph, well you had better make your way upstairs now Harry" said Mrs Weasley changing the subject, _"Wait for Dumbledore outside the drawing room I'm sure he won't be long now"._

Harry left the table and made his way upstairs. As he approached the drawing room he heard raised voices behind the door. They were high pitched and definitely not human. _"We have never had any cooperation when it came to him, so why should now be any different. And why should we go out of our way to help you? We have given you proof and you still refuse to act"._

Dumbledores' calm voice came drifting through the small gap in the door. 

__

"I can assure you that action is being taken; your claims are being investigated but at the moment there is no tangible proof that he has gone over to the other side. We cannot simply hunt down and arrest a man because of rumours. The only tangible thing that we have on Ludo Bagman at the moment is his gambling debts, and we cannot make him pay what he has not got. Now am I to assume that the alliance between our kinds that we are proposing will still be put forward to your Council, despite the Bagman issue?" 

"We will put forward your proposals but we cannot guarantee anything, you haven't given many incentives. We will see". Chairs scrapped in the room and there was the sound of feet pattering towards the door. Harry stood back and became very interested in a family portrait that was on the wall next to him. _"What are you staring at traitor" _it said to him. With that, the door to the drawing room opened and two goblins walked out. _"We will be in contact soon Mr Dumbledore". _With a bow they turned and walked down the hallway.

__

"Come in Harry" said Professor Dumbledore, looking down at Harry over the top of his half moon spectacles, _"I have been expecting you". _

****


	4. Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari...

**Chapter Four **

A Series of Events

Harry started to walk forwards in to the drawing room and turned his head as he walked to look down the hallway at the backs of the two scurrying goblins. They stopped two doors down and threw a handful of green powder up over themselves and were gone. Harry stopped walking and gazed open mouthed at the little clouds of smoke that remained where the goblins had stood. Professor Dumbledore walked straight in to the back of him. _"It's not polite to stare Harry"_.

Harry turned and walked in to the drawing room. It was a lot brighter than the last time he had been in here. The walls had been painted cream and there were portraits all over the walls; some of them Harry recognised as members of the Order who had been killed. To his left there was a large oak desk with two wooden chairs with red cushions on and a larger chair on the other side. 

__

"Sit down Harry" said Professor Dumbledore directing Harry to a plump red armchair, the same colour as the curtains, that was next to the unlit fire. _"Have you had a pleasant holiday so far?"_ Dumbledore asked as he took the red armchair on the opposite side of the fire.

__

"Yes thank you sir" Harry replied. _"Now Molly and Arthur tell me that they had to fill you in on the adoption, though I must say I would have rathered you heard it from me"._

"Its okay" replied Harry rather glumly.

__

"No it's not but I'm sure you'll learn to deal with your feelings about Sirius' leaving us when you're ready; as long as you know that we are all here to help you. I'm sorry I couldn't be the one to tell you but I had to meet with Mr Grub and Mr Kobald".

"The goblins?" asked Harry.

__

"Yes. They are representatives of the Goblin Council of Elders. They are putting forward a proposal for the ministry to join an alliance against Voldemort. But you must not mention the meeting to anyone outside of this house. They have already dealt with Minister Fudge but it wasn't very successful and we wouldn't want him to think I'm interfering now would we". Dumbledore replied winking at Harry with a small smile on his face.

As Harry looked at him he realised how old and tired Dumbledore was looking. He had twice as many wrinkles and his blue eyes seemed to have lost a lot of their sparkle.

__

"You look tired Professor" said Harry looking him straight in the eye. Dumbledore was very taken aback at this and Harry realised after he had said it that he had never spoken to him as a friend before even though that was how he thought of him; kind of like family.

__

"I am fine Harry, old age comes to us all in the end" and then removing his spectacles and wiping the lenses on the hem of his purple robes _"well most of us anyway"_. He put them back on again and sat up straighter in his chair.

__

"Well Harry, like I said in my letter, all Sirius' personal belongings have been boxed and are in his room ready for you to look through when you are ready. Buckbeak is back at Hogwarts being cared for by Hagrid as the Ministry has agreed to give him a second chance, though he won't be taking part in any more of Hagrids' lessons!" Harry smiled at this; Hagrid must be over the moon having Buckbeak back he loved strange animals and was most upset when the Ministry was going to execute him.

__

"Now while you are here you will be able to help Molly organise the filing in the office upstairs though you must swear not to repeat ANY of the information that you might come across while you are fulfilling your duties to anybody else".

"Yes Professor" replied Harry excitedly but trying to look serious.

__

"I have also gained permission from the Ministry for you to have your apparation lessons here in this house rather than at a test centre, though you will have to take your exam at the Ministry. Arthur is going to teach you as he is a ministry official and Tonks is going to assist him".

"Excellent" grinned Harry. _"I'm glad you're happy Harry. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?"_

"Well … um … now that you're working with the Ministry I take it that every thing is back to normal?" asked Harry cautiously. Professor Dumbledore chuckled and for a moment some of the sparkle came back in to his eyes.

__

"Yes Harry I am no longer the senile demented panic-mongering old fool that I was last year and you are no longer an attention seeking juvenile delinquent".

"And Lord Voldemort?"

"Still in hiding. All we are really sure of at the moment is that he is recruiting more death eaters. There have been more dementor attacks but we are still trying to confirm if they are random attacks or deliberate. Now I am only telling you this Harry because you are of age now and you need to know how serious the situation is. You cannot go wandering off on your own anymore and you have to stay among people that we know are completely trustworthy. Alastor and Remus will be giving you some defensive training but you only have a few weeks till your back at school so you must be careful".

"Yes Professor". said Harry.

__

"Now it's time for you to go to bed; I'm sure Ron will be upstairs waiting for you and I will see you again during the week. If you want me, anytime at all, just ask Molly or Arthur and I'll come straight away".

"Thank you" said Harry his green eyes looking up in to Dumbledores' deep blue ones. For the first time in a long while he felt like he was receiving some real affection and as he walked over to the door he felt closer to Dumbledore than he ever had before, though he still had a niggling thought at the back of his mind that he wasn't Sirius.

  
As Harry walked back down the hallway to the stairs he didn't see Professor Dumbledore close the door to the drawing room with a single tear running down his cheek. He had had to lie to Harry again, but now was not the time to tell him what might come to be. He'd never had children of his own but he was sure that he would have done the same for them as he was for Harry. After all Harry had come to feel so much like his own child which was making the whole situation so much harder. But then Harry had that effect on most of the adults that had come in contact with him since he was a baby. All except the only family that he had left, they just seemed determined to dislike him. Wiping the tear off his cheek Albus Dumbledore sat back down at the desk and took out the letter he had been writing earlier to his brother, Aberforth, and turned all his attention back to it as Harry entered his bedroom upstairs. 

Ron, Fred, George and Hermione were all sat on the beds again waiting for him. Harry told them all that Dumbledore had said about apparation lessons, defence lessons and helping Mrs Weasley, the about the goblins and Ludo bagman. _"Well we all know he's a thief and a liar"_ said Fred. 

__

"Look at what he did to us at the Quidditch World Cup" added George. _"But he hardly seems the type to join Voldemort does he" _stated Hermione. _"I mean, he's too stupid to be a danger to anyone else but himself isn't he?" _

Harry remembered what he had seen in Dumbledores' pensieve two years ago and told them about Bagmans' trial for passing on information to death eaters.

__

"Well something's going on anyway" said Ron _"he has disappeared I remember reading something in one of the files about a tip off saying he was in Reading being a dead end; didn't think much about it at the time. Thought they were just chasing up his gambling debts"._

"Well if he has changed sides it must be a power thing, because he made a packet off of that Quidditch book" said George.

__

"Maybe Voldemort offered to protect him from the goblins" suggested Harry, though just as he was finishing that sentence, Fred, George and Hermione vanished from the room with a pop and it was only then that Harry heard the footsteps on the stairs. There was a knock at the door and Mr Weasley came in. _"Time to turn the lights out now boys; your mother will be up to check in am minute" _and he turned and left. Harry grinned to himself as he put on his pyjamas. Mr Weasley had called Mrs Weasley his mother. Slip of the tongue it may have been but it still felt good and Harry was glad that he was no longer at Privet Drive. Ever since Sirius' death, Harry had taken more notice of the things around him and appreciated them more. Maybe it was his age too. He had had plenty of time over the summer to think about things and he realised that rather than pine for the people that he had lost he had to concentrate on the people that he had, so that he did not waste a minute of the time that he had with them because you never know who may be round the next corner. 

Harry climbed in to bed and said goodnight to Ron just as Mrs Weasley came in and turned the light off. For the second time that day Harry felt truly happy.

The next week flew by. Harry had his first apparation lesson with Mr Weasley and Ron and Hermione tested him on questions in the theory book. Harry had quite a nasty bruise on his left hip from hitting the corner of the desk in the drawing room when Mad Eye had propelled him through the air when he hit him with a very powerful knock-back jinx in his first dense lesson. Mad Eye had also caused uproar by giving an impromptu lesson that evening at supper. He poisoned Harry's' drink with an engorgement serum that made Harry's' throat swell up so fast that he couldn't breathe. Moody gave him the antidote immediately and told Harry that he'd failed his first test on vigilance as anyone could try and poison him at any time; but he was unable to finish his lesson as he was having to fight off Mrs Weasley who was alternately trying to hit him with a saucepan and a tea towel, shouting that only a mad man would poison a child. Mr Weasley was trying to calm her down and detach the saucepan from her left hand while Lupin looked after Harry. Though rightly, Moody had an extra large lump on the side of his forehead the next morning and Harry was always careful with his food and drink when Moody stayed for meals after that.

Harry had been helping with the filing for a week now and was just getting the hang of Mrs Weasleys' system. She wouldn't file things alphabetically under surnames because she thought they would be too easy to find if someone broke in to steal them. They tried to convince her that nobody could break in because the house was hidden, but she wasn't having any of it. So she colour coded and numbered them and put them in to piles for Harry, Ron and Hermione to put away. Though for the life of them they couldn't work out how Mrs Weasley determined the colour system; all they knew was they weren't to touch red files unless Mrs Weasley was in the room. 

Three rooms on the third floor had been set aside for the filing cabinets. They appeared to be normal muggle cabinets but Harry was shocked when he first opened one because the inside was five times larger than the outside. Harry guessed that they had been bewitched to make the inside bigger.

Every now and again Harry got a glimpse of what was inside the files but he had to be careful because Mrs Weasley caught Fred yesterday sneaking a look at what turned out to be a report on goblin meetings in caves in Scotland and Devon. They couldn't ask what it had meant because they weren't supposed to know. 

Two weeks before they were due to go back to school Ron Hermione and Harry were upstairs helping Mrs Weasley when she asked Ron and Hermione to take one big pile of files in to the next room and put them away in the cabinets in there. As they left Mrs Weasley decided to go with them and check that they knew where they were putting them. _"You carry on Harry dear, I won't be long". _

Harry turned back to his pile and continued putting them away. There were hundreds of files so the Ministry office must be really busy, Harry thought to himself. He had just turned to go over to Green cabinet number three when he accidentally caught the corner of the pile Mrs Weasley had been working on. Eight red labelled files fell off the desk and were scattered over the floor, on the Axminster carpet. Harry scrambled down to pick them up before Mrs Weasley came back, not wanting to make her angry with him. Harry had just put six of them back together and back on the pile when he looked down and saw his name written on a page of one of the files that was still on the floor. He turned his head towards the door to see if he could hear any sign of Mrs Weasley returning but there was none.

He quickly turned back to the pieces of parchment that were strewn on the floor and retrieved the ones that went with the page that had his name on. As he put the unwanted one back on the desk he sat quickly in Mrs Weasley chair and started reading the parchments that he had in his hand. 

The date on the file was the day his parents had died. But to Harry's' surprise, his was not the only name in the file. As he pulled the rest of the papers out, two photographs spilled out on to the desk. One was of Harry as a baby with his parents. The other was of a small chubby baby with dark brown hair and a large grin on his face. The baby laughed happily as the father that was holding him was pretending to throw him up in the air. The mother was laughing too and waving at the camera. Harry turned the photograph over and written on the back were the names Frank, Alice and Neville Longbottom. Harry turned the picture back over and then instantly realised it was Neville in the picture but the two happy adults in the picture looked nothing like they had when Harry saw them in St Mungos the year before.

Harry turned his attention to the report that went with the photos, searching through the rolls of parchment for page one. It was dated two days before the day that Voldemort came to Godrics Hollow. 

****

'Violet and Albert Potter, parents of James Potter, have been killed in action protecting their home from an attack by ten, as yet, unidentified death eaters. 

Aurors for fifty years, their death is a great loss and the investigation in to the attack has not yet revealed the reason for the assault. Insurance money to be paid to next of kin, James Potter, immediately on conclusion of the investigation.

Alastor Moody

Chief Auror

Department of Magical Law Enforcement'

Harry skimmed the next few pages of witness statements but no more information was given. Then as he turned the fourth page over Harry saw Professor Dumbledores writing; it was a diary entry.

****

'A private source has come to me with very disturbing information. It appears that Lord Voldemort has learnt part of the prophecy that was told to me in the Hogs Head in Hogsmede by Sybil Trelawney. It appears that the attack on Albert and Violet Potter was the first act undertaken after he heard about the prophecy, as he was trying to find the location of James, Lily and Harry Potter, who I have already sent in to hiding as I fear for the child's' safety. 

Whilst James is reluctant to give up his auror duties at the moment, the death of his parents has convinced him to stay in hiding and protect his wife and child.

I am still trying to convince the Longbottoms of the need to go in to hiding and am very concerned for the safety of Neville Longbottom …'

Harry turned to the next piece of parchment.

****

'Investigation in to the death of James and Lily Potter

It is know known that the location of the Potters was given to He Who Must Not Be Named by their secret keeper Sirius Black. What is not yet known is how the child, Harry, survived the attack but his parents did not. Witnesses have told that nine hooded figures were seen in Godrics Hollow an hour before the explosion. Arabella Figg, a neighbour of the Potters, reported that only one person entered the house, the other eight disapparated to an unknown location. It is not known what happened in the house. Mrs Figg reports that it took approximately two minutes from when He Who Must Not Be Named entered the house to when the explosion occurred. Mrs Figg went to raise the alarm by trying to contact Albus Dumbledore, who sent members of the Order of the Phoenix to the scene. Hagrid, Dumbledores' assistant was first to arrive … Auror insurance policies for Lily and James Potter have been paid to their next of kin … '

Harry skimmed the next few paragraphs but it was all information that he knew.

The next report was in Alastor Moodys' handwriting again dated the same day as Harry's' parents were attacked.

****

'A private source has now confirmed that the attacks on the Potters and the Longbottoms are linked. A source close to Albus Dumbledore has told that He Who Must Not Be Named chose to deal with the Potters personally as he felt that it was more likely that the prophecy (see 1485.3a) referred to the Potter child, Harry, as the parents were more powerful than the Longbottoms and had a closer relationship with Albus Dumbledore. He had sent his eight followers to the Longbottoms house, however, to kill their child Neville, just to be certain that the prophecy could not be fulfilled. The death eaters left He Who Must Not Be Named at the Potters' house in Godrics Hollow and disapparated to the Longbottoms house. This is confirmed in a witness report. However, when they got there, the child had already been removed. Albus Dumbledore had been at the house twenty minutes earlier due to a tip off from an undisclosed source and removed the child along with his grandmother. Frank and Alice Longbottom refused to leave. Albus Dumbledore had to leave them and unfortunately he was unable to make it too the Potters house in time.

Aurors were, however, en route to both houses when the attacks took place but they also were too late. 

The Longbottoms sustained minor injuries as it appears the death eaters 'felt' that something had happened to their master and left instantly. The aurors were, however, already at Godrics Hollow after the explosion when the Death eaters arrived so they returned to their homes to await further instructions.

Both children are now in Dumbledores protective custody and the Longbottoms' are back in work rounding up Death Eaters. Alert status is still high however as sources say that the Death Eaters are still active and looking for their master.

Alastor Moody

Chief Auror

Department of Magical Law Enforcement'

Harry was shocked; he knew that the prophecy could have referred to Neville because Dumbledore had told him, but he did not know that the Longbottoms had been attacked on the same night. Then he remembered that the report said they had minor injuries but it couldn't be minor injuries that put them in St Mungos. Why had Dumbledore gone for Neville first? What was Mrs Figg doing in Godrics Hollow? Did Neville know all this? And Harry realised that he had never known that his parents and his grandparents had been aurors. He had not even known their names.

Harrys' thoughts were interrupted as he heard a door open and footsteps walking down the hallway. Harry shoved all the pieces of parchment back in to the file with the photo of Neville smiling in his parents arms on the top and put the file back on to the pile as Mrs Weasley walked back in through the door.

Harry spent the next hour filing, thoughts spinning round in his head, as Mrs Weasley scurried between rooms with arms full of files. At five o'clock she told Harry that they had done enough for that day and went next door to tell Ron and Hermione.

Harry closed the filing cabinet draw that he had been using and made his way downstairs to his bedroom. He was sat on his bed staring at Hedwig when Ron and Hermione came in. After checking that Mrs Weasley had gone down to the kitchen, Harry told them what he had read. They were both just as shocked as he had been.

__

"We never knew anything like that Harry" said Ron.

__

"No, it was never in any of the books" added Hermione.

__

"I never thought about it before, I mean, I can't believe now that I never thought to ask anyone what my parents did, or about my grandparents. Sirius' mentioned them, but I never thought to ask anymore. It seems so stupid now. I mean, he knew them; there's so much I don't know and I didn't realise until now".

"What are you going to do?" asked Ron, absently stroking Crookshanks who had jumped up on his lap.

__

"I don't know" he replied. _"It could take ages trying to find something in the files even if we could get at them"._

Hermione gave a little cough as she cleared her throat _"Well Harry, you could just … ask this time. We don't necessarily have to break in to things anymore. You have a right to know and you are old enough now"._

Harry hadn't even considered this. _"But I shouldn't have been looking in the file to start with"._

"Yeah mum won't be too happy" added Ron.

__

"Well if you don't tell her … if you asked someone who wouldn't say anything to her … maybe Professor Lupin?" suggested Hermione.

__

"I could, but would he be allowed to tell me? Surely he would have to tell Dumbledore that I had seen the file and then there's Neville too. If he doesn't know what happened, about the prophecy and all, then they may get really angry. I don't know what to do. Maybe I should just go straight to Dumbledore he said he'd come if I needed him".

"There's no need" came a voice behind them. They all spun round to be confronted by Phineas Nigellus peering at them menacingly from his portrait on the wall, with his dark, black eyes gleaming. _"I've informed him of your little dilemma and he will be here after you've had your supper. Have a pleasant meal!" _And with that, he stalked out of the side of his portrait, back, presumably back to Dumbledores' office.

__

"Oh dear" said Hermione with a very panicked look on her face.

__

"Oh well, look on the bright side" said Ron trying to sound cheerful _"you haven't got to worry about who to ask anymore!"_

Harry looked at them both, then looked back at the empty portrait, resigning himself to the fact that he was in so much trouble … again.

The rest of the evening went quite quickly. Harry, Ron and Hermione had a brief defence lesson with Lupin; as Moody was still in disgrace. They worked on their shield charms and Lupin tried to show them how they could link the charms together to make the shield bigger and stronger; but they didn't manage it. Hermione was very disgruntled by the end of the lesson. After this Harry had a quick apparition lesson with Mr Weasley.

Supper came round quickly but Mrs Weasley was her usual cheerful self so Harry assumed she hadn't heard from Dumbledore yet. Percy had just launched in to a longwinded description of his day when the kitchen door opened and Professor Dumbledore came in. Harry, Hermione and Ron turned and looked up at him sheepishly; only Mr Weasley saw the expressions on their faces.

__

"Albus" greeted Mrs Weasley _"We weren't expecting you! Would you like anything to eat?"_

Dumbledore declined and asked for Harry to come and join him in the drawing room. Harry got up and followed him out of the room. 

Taking their seats in the red armchairs again, Harry was very surprised to find out that Dumbledore was not angry with him. He just looked sad as he sat in dark blue robes telling Harry about what had happened on the night his parents died. A lot of it was what Harry had read in the file, some of it was new though.

Harry's' grandparents had also lived in Godrics Hollow and had been very good friends of Dumbledores. They had helped him set up the Order of the Phoenix and were well known aurors; Moody had apparently been particularly fond of them.

__

"But the photograph of the Order, they weren't in it?" asked Harry thinking back to the picture that had been in the photo album has was given for his birthday.

__

"No, unfortunately Albert had had to go in to work on the day it was taken, but it was your grandmother who actually took the picture, that's why she wasn't in it".

Mrs Figg, he explained, had lived in Godrics Hollow all her life. Her parents were magical but she wasn't, well not enough anyway. When they died she inherited the house which was opposite Harry's' parents house. She had been friends with Lily and James and watched out for them as a favour to Dumbledore. After they died she moved to Little Whinging to keep watch over Harry because a squib didn't have to be registered to live in a muggle area, so Harry could be watched without being traced. 

__

"Arabella is a dear friend" said Dumbledore _"she gave up a lot to watch over you because she felt guilty about not being able to help the night your parents died"._

Harry felt numb and did not know what to say.

__

"And now Harry, the rest you must not repeat outside this house; I realise you will tell Ron and Hermione but it MUST end there. You were correct earlier when you said that Neville might not know about the prophecy and the attacks. After you were 'marked' we decided that it would be for the best if he didn't know. The prophecy seemed fulfilled and as he grew up and showed no real signs of magic it reinforced the fact that the prophecy referred to you". 

"But his parents?"

"Ah well, you see Harry, Frank and Alice put up a good fight. I had asked them to come with me when I took Neville and his grandmother, but they were stubborn. They refused to flee their home despite the danger. They wanted to stand and fight. And because I knew I still had to get to you, I did not stop long to argue with them. I had just dropped off Neville and his grandmother with a friend of mine when I got the news about the explosion, so I had Hagrid bring you to me. I have always regretted not getting to Lily and James in time. But then who's to say it wasn't fates plan? I went straight to Neville on instinct and because of that both of you lived".

"The report said Mr and Mrs Longbottom only had minor injuries" Harry asked.

__

"Just cuts and bruises that night, they were very lucky. They said that as they were being attacked, all of a sudden it just stopped and the death eaters grabbed at their arms then disapparated. We know now about the death mark and that it burned when Voldemort was nearly killed, so they knew that something had happened. Frank and Alice still refused to go in to hiding though, and a few weeks after that first attack a group of death eaters came back having decided that the Longbottoms might know where their master was, and also to complete the last instruction that Voldemort gave them. But no matter what curse was placed on them, they refused to give up Neville's' location. The attack was reported in the papers but the real reason was never given, just in case. But remember Harry, you cannot tell Neville, his grandmother does not want him too know".

Harry could understand this completely, after all he lived with the guilt of knowing his parents because of him; and as Neville's parents barely recognised him, they may as well be dead for him too.

All of a sudden there was a great commotion out in the hallway.

__

"Be careful Arthur! Stay with Moody" Mrs Weasley shouted, _"Percy stay with your father"._

"Out of the way Molly" shouted Mr Weasley as he burst in through the drawing room door. _"Got to go, Azkaban attacking dementors … I mean dementors attacking Azkaban"_ he cried.

Professor Mcgonagall came flying in to the room behind him. _"Ministry calling in all help"_ she gasped out of breath _"breaking out death eaters, got to go now"._

Professor Dumbledore flew out of his chair and out in to the hallway and Harry followed as quickly as he could so that he wouldn't miss anything.

__

"Molly send a message to Minister Fudge now saying we are on our way; use the fire in Sirius' bedroom". Professor Dumbledores' voice was unusually tense and alarmed. He sped downstairs with Mrs Weasley, Percy and Professor Mcgonagall on his heels. As Harry looked over the banisters down to the ground floor hallway he saw Remus Lupin, Mad Eye Moody and Tonks waiting; wands out at the ready. As the adults rushed out of sight Harry gazed down in to the eyes of Ron and Hermione, who were both looking very startled. None of them said anything. 

****


	5. Harry Potter and the light of the Istari...

****

Chapter Five

The First Encounter

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the kitchen for the next two hours trying to concentrate on a game of wizard chess while Mrs Weasley paced up and down behind them. At quarter past ten there was noise up in the hallway as people stomped down the stairs in to the kitchen. Fred, George, Mrs Weasley, Percy and Tonks came in. 

"Oh thank god" shouted Mrs Weasley rushing over to the door and sweeping all the Weasleys in to a hug. "Oh my Tonks sit down dear" she said as she caught sight of the state of her. She had a large gash down the right side of her face, a black eye and cuts on her hands. Some of her robes were torn too, as were the Weasleys' but they weren't as bruised.

"Refused to go to the hospital" yawned Mr Weasley, jabbing a weary finger in Tonks' direction.

"What happened?" asked Hermione anxiously bringing a cold wet cloth over to help clean up Tonks' face.

"Ron go and get the first aid kit from the pantry" called Mrs Weasley who was carefully checking over Fred, George and Percy for injuries, not realising that he had already brought it. 

"Dementors all over" spluttered Tonks from behind Hermiones' cloth. 

"Must have been at least sixty of them, knew who they were going for too. Malfoy's on the loose now for one thing. Their still checking the cells and grounds but at least forty more death eaters are on the loose now" said Mr Weasley wearily.

"Fudge is gonna do his nut" Fred yawned.

"What were you two doing there anyway?" scolded Mrs Weasley.

"We were in the office when the message came in; we went with Kingsley and met up with Dad. We're fine mum; most of it was over by the time we all got there".

"It's definitely Voldemort behind it, had to be to get all those Dementors in and out of there so fast; even Dumbledore was surprised" Percy added as he sat at the table and summoned the left over cheese and bread from supper over to the table with his wand.

"Who else is loose?" Harry asked Harry, worried that Lucius Malfoy was out and about again after their last meeting in the Department of Mysteries.

"Well, we haven't got an exact list yet" Mr Weasley paused as he looked at Harry's' troubled face "we'll know more in the morning; your all perfectly safe here though".

"They're all out aren't they" Hermione looked straight at Mr Weasley, utter terror in her eyes; she had been badly hurt last time they came in to contact with death eaters.

"There's no need to panic Hermione" Mr Weasley responded in a slightly strained voice.

"They can't have all got out, there's too many" Mrs Weasley laughed uncertainly. Mr Weasley looked straight at her but said nothing.

"Oh my, oh dear". 

"Mother calm down" said Percy "they'll catch them; they can't have all got far".

Mrs Weasley looked at him sideways out of the corners of her eyes clearly not convinced.

"Time for bed now" announced Mr Weasley clapping his hands, trying to break the tension. They all rose and made their way upstairs; Tonks staying in Hermione's room as Ginny was still away, none of them feeling at all like sleeping.

Ron had not said anything to Harry when Mrs Weasley closed the bedroom door. They just got in to their pyjamas and got in to bed. Harry did not sleep much at all that night. He just stared upwards in to the dark wondering what Voldemort was going to do now that he had started rebuilding his army of death eaters again. And when he did get some sleep, he dreamt about Sirius again, falling helplessly through the blackness.

Breakfast the next morning was quite quiet. Mr Weasley, Percy, Tonks and the twins had already left early for the ministry, so it was just Mrs Weasley, Harry, Ron and Hermione. There was no more news on the escape and when the post came, there was nothing in the Daily Prophet.

"Probably don't want to scare people" Mrs Weasley informed them and started to clear the plates away. As she did so Professor McGonagall came in to the kitchen.

"Morning Molly" she turned to the table "I've brought your school letters as I was passing by, all your NEWT choices have been accepted and your book lists are in there too". Then looking at Mrs Weasley "though under the circumstances, you'll have to check with Dumbledore about them going to Diagon Alley themselves".

"Well the death eaters are hardly likely to turn up there are they" said Harry "I mean, it's full of wizards, and I wanted to go to Quidditch Supplies to get some more polish".

"We'll see Harry dear" said Mrs Weasley glancing at McGonagall.

"Well, are you going to open your envelope?" McGonagall smiled at Harry and he wondered what was going on. 

Looking down he unsealed the envelope and pulled out the pieces of parchment and to his surprise a badge fell out. It had the Gryffindor lion on it and two crossed broomsticks. Harry looked up at Professor McGonagall confused but she was still beaming at him. He opened up the pieces of parchment and read the top sheet, it was from Professor Dumbledore.

Dear Mr Potter,

I am pleased to inform you, that you have been chosen as 

the new Gryffindor quid ditch captain. I have enclosed your badge. I wish 

you lots of luck and hope you continue to make Gryffindor proud.

Yours Sincerely

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster 

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"Wow" said Ron, reading the letter over Harry's shoulder. "That's excellent. I forgot Angelina has left now. Oh and Katie and Alicia have finished too so we're gonna need all new chasers too".

"But I'm not allowed to play" said Harry.

"Well in light of Professor Umbridge's … departure, your ban has been lifted and you are back on the team" she smiled.

"But Ginny" Harry suddenly remembered "She's seeker".

"Well as Captain Mr Potter, who you have on the team is your decision; though I am sure Miss Weasley would make an excellent chaser".

"Oh my" said Mrs Weasley excitedly "I'll have to write and tell her, she always wanted to be a chaser".

"You haven't heard Molly?" McGonagall turned to Mrs Weasley looking worried.

"What? What's happened?" said Mrs Weasley panicking.

"Randall Zeller disappeared yesterday, he never came home from work so Dumbledore has arranged for the Zellers to stay somewhere safe in case it is linked somehow to the Azkaban breakout and Ginny is on her way home. Dumbledore was taking her to Arthur at the Ministry because he has a meeting with Alastor".

Ginny had been staying with the Zellers for a while over the holidays as she was friends with Mary Zeller who was in Hufflepuff in Ginny's year. Mary also had a younger sister Rose who was in the year below, Harry could remember her being sorted.

"But she's okay?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"Yes Molly, she is fine, don't worry, she'll be home later. Right, well, I have to go now; I've got a lot to do today. You behave Mr Potter, oh and look after my team". She smiled as she turned and left the room.

"Mrs Weasley?"

"Yes Hermione" she said as she sat back down at the table.

"Do you think that Mr Zellers disappearance could be related to the Azkaban breakout?"

"Oh no, definitely not. Arthur and I have known Randall for years, there's not a bad bone in his body. If he has gone then it's not to work for … him. Now come on we've got a lot of filing to do today and I need to get Ginny's room ready.

The day passed quickly and at supper time Mr Weasley came in with Percy and Ginny. She had a brilliant time until yesterday and apparently nobody knew any reason for Mr Zellar to have gone away. Mr Weasley confirmed that the Azkaban breakout had been kept out of the Daily Prophet by Fudge as they were hoping to catch some of the escapees before it went to print. But the aurors had been searching all day and nobody had been found.

"Anyway" said Mrs Weasley "I spoke to Dumbledore this afternoon. As it's not long till you go back to school he said to take you to Diagon Alley tomorrow to get your school things. The Azkaban attack will be in the Daily Prophet tomorrow so he thinks it will be the best time for you to go, as people will be on their guard and the death eaters will still be hiding. There will be aurors there too".

"Great" said Ron "we can show you the joke shop Harry".

With the prospect of no filing tomorrow and some fresh air, Harry went to bed feeling much better. He fell asleep to the sound of Hedwig hooting and Phineas snoring in his portrait.

Mrs Weasley called them early the next morning. It was still dark and Harry got up to let Hedwig and Pig out for a quick fly around the square to stretch their wings, though Hedwig still turned her beak from him when he told her to go back in to her cage.

After getting dressed everybody made their way down to the kitchen for breakfast. But when they entered the kitchen, there was no food on the table, just Tonks and Mrs Weasley sat at the table, who was sat in her best clothes.

"Right is everybody ready?" she asked Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"But what about breakfast?" asked Ron dumbstruck.

"We aren't having breakfast here, we will have something later".

"But we always have breakfast" Ron said looking longingly at the pantry, thoughts of sausages and greasy bacon whirling round his head.

"Ron stop thinking about your stomach, its obvious we have to leave now as a security precaution" scolded Hermione.

"But what if I faint or, or, blackout before we get there. I need my food!" Ron said astounded at the thought of not eating. Harry laughed.

"Come on Ron, everybody hold a piece of this". Mrs Weasley held up a red chequered tea towel in her hand.

"We haven't used any plates to dry yet" Ron said sarcastically. Hermione clobbered him over the head, "it's a port key Ron!" Everybody took a hold of the small cloth and Mrs Weasley looked at the clock on the wall and counted down. On one they all jerked forward and the wind pushed their hair back and pulled at their skin. All of a sudden they came to a standstill; Harry was getting the hang of this now and managed to stay on his feet as did Ginny, but Ron ended up in a heap on the floor with Hermione. 

Harry looked around himself and smiled, he was stood in the kitchen of the Burrow.

"I thought we were going to Diagon Alley" said Ron picking himself up off the floor and uncrumpling his clothes "or are we having breakfast here?".

"We are and no; stop fussing Ron" Mrs Weasley snapped. "Now everyone take some of this". Mrs Weasley had gone over to the fireplace and picked up a green clay pot that Harry recognised at once as the floo powder pot.

"Right I'll go first, you had better go last Tonks" she said. Mrs Weasley climbed in to the fireplace, took a deep breathe and said clearly "Ministry of Magic". She burst in to green flames and then disappeared. One by one they all climbed in to the fireplace and repeated the words.

Harry re-emerged from the fireplace he had landed in to find himself in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. There were five fireplaces either side of the one he stepped out of and other witches and wizards were emerging from them, one by one, on their way to work. His gaze followed one old wizard in bright green robes as he hurried off towards the fountain and the lifts; disappearing in to the crowd of rushing people all swarming in the same direction.

"Harry dear, come out of the way" Mrs Weasley called as Ginny appeared behind him. Tonks was last to arrive and then they all followed Mrs Weasley to the telephone box at the deserted end of the atrium. A guard at a desk nodded at them as they passed. It was a bit of a squeeze so Tonks and Hermione disapparated to the street above while everyone else squeezed in to the box. As the door closed it started to climb up in to the air.

Diagon Alley was only a few streets away and as they approached the Leaky Cauldron Harry noticed there were muggles by a couple of the shop windows that were wearing an odd mismatch of clothes. There was an old man looking in the chemists' window who was wearing a green tartan kilt with a pink shirt and tie and matching pink legwarmers. Harry stared at him as they walked by but the man continued gazing in the window. But Harry could have sworn that as he started to turn his head forwards again, the reflection winked at him.

"Right, here we are dears in you go" said Mrs Weasley pushing them one by one in through a dirty wooden door that Harry had only just noticed. Harry looked up as he went through the door and sure enough, the old wooden Laky Cauldron sign was swinging in the breeze above his head.

As Harry stepped through the wall in to Diagon Alley, Mrs Weasley tucked her wand back in to her coat pocket and turned to face them all.

"Right, there's aurors all over the place but don't wander off Diagon Alley", she turned slightly and made a point of looking at Harry as she said this. Harry just shrugged and gave a cheesy grin.

"I'll take you all to Fred and Georges' and you can wait there while I get all your books. I'll come back for you and then we'll go to Madam Malkins to get your robes, because you need to be measured again Ron. You're going to be taller than Bill if you keep growing; I don't know where you get it from". Harry laughed; Ron was at least four inches taller than him now. Mrs Weasley led them down Diagon Alley to number ninety three and in big gold letters across the top of the thatched windows was the words 'Weasleys Wizardly Wheezes'.

Mrs Weasley stopped halfway in through the shop door and turned to Harry "Oh and I'd forgotten till now, but I'll be wanting a word with you later Harry about a certain … financial donation!" Harry gulped and then followed her in to the shop.

The inside was amazing. There were rows and rows of shelves with different colour jars and boxes on them. The shelves closest to the front door were filled with hundreds of different types of sweets. Further along the shelves graduated in to joke animals, including the fake wands that turned in to rubber chickens. And beyond those there were mannequins that came alive and demonstrated joke items of clothing. The first mannequin was demonstrating the invisible head hats that Fred had shown Harry last year. Another mannequin was modelling robes with invisible pockets. Harry was examining these when he heard his name shouted out from a bunch of shelves on his left. He turned towards the voice and grinned as Angelina Johnson came flying across the floor and swept Harry in to a huge hug that hurt his ribs. 

"I'm so glad McGonagall picked you to take over the team; maybe now we have a chance to get the cup back from Slytherin again".

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked her, noticing the Weasleys Wizardly Wheezes flashing badges she was wearing.

"Well I work here, I mean, I got signed up for Little Hallow QT but they don't pay very well, so I work here in my spare time".

"Hey that's quite a good team Angelina" added Ron who came up to join them. "I didn't know Fred and George made robes" said Harry leaning forwards to prod the invisible pocket but got clobbered around the head by the mannequin instead, which then stalked off to the other end of the shop and started demonstrating its invisible pockets to Ginny.

"Oh we don't make robes" Angelina explained "you attach the pockets to your own robes with a sticking spell. They're really clever".

"Great, I'm having some of them then! Where's Fred and George?"

"Right behind you Harry mate". Harry turned as Fred and George emerged from a side door, both wearing their green dragon skin suits again.

"Well what do you think?" asked George.

"It's brilliant, I didn't realise you had invented so much stuff" exclaimed Harry.

"Yep its one hundred percent all Weasley merchandise; no outside suppliers. Where's mum?"

"Gone to get our book" answered Ron. The bell above the shop door rang and as Harry turned round he saw a group of boys come in to the shop. He recognised two of them as Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas. Ginny left Tonks who was busy with the mannequin trying to retrieve her wand out of its pocket; and went over to them.

"Ron!" Hermione warned him in a wary voice. Harry looked around at him and laughed when he saw that Ron was grinding his teeth and flexing his fingers. "Relax little bro; Deans all right. Besides, he's the one that would be scattered in pieces if he did anything to hurt Ginny … literally. Did you see her black boils jinx the other day?"

They all laughed except Ron who was still watching them out of the corner of his eye. Fred and George gave them a tour around the shop; including the mail order packaging room out the back. Mrs Weasley returned as Harry was paying for his things.

"Your making him pay?!" she scolded.

"Well business is business mum. We'll see you guys later for tea; glad you like the shop Harry".

"Right Madam Malkins, follow me" Mrs Weasley called heading for the door. "Tonks you take the rear".

It took an hour for them all to have their measurements taken and their new robes parcelled up. Mrs Weasley was still waiting for Ginnys' when Ron asked if they could go and get their potions ingredients because they were bored waiting.

"Oh dear where's Tonks gone?" Mrs Weasley looked round the shop. "Well I suppose its safe enough just stay together and wait for me there".

Back out in Diagon Alley, the sun was shining and witches and wizards bustled from shop to shop though Harry noticed that there weren't quite as many as usual.

"I'm going to just nip in here and get a new quill. I'll catch up with you" Ginny announced and sped off in to the shop before anyone could answer.

"Do you think we should go in with her?" Hermione looked indecisive.

"Na she'll be fine; you heard Fred and George nobody's going to mess with her are they, and besides look around, there's aurors everywhere" said Ron and they carried on walking down Diagon Alley to the apothecary, with Hermione looking back every now and again over her shoulder. Harry looked around and suddenly noticed all the witches and wizards stood in doorways and dark corners, wands out ready for action. 

They were just reaching the doorway of the apothecary when there was a loud bang that shook all the shop windows, which came from the other end of Diagon Alley. Standing on his tiptoes to try and look over the heads of all the people that had stopped in their tracks, Harry could see black smoke rising in to the air. Almost immediately all the aurors came tearing out of their hiding, and visible, places and went charging through the crowds, wands drawn, to find the source of the bang.

"Merlin's beard! What on earth was that" explained Ron gawping down the street.

"I don't know but we should get in the shop out of the way quick" said Hermione trying to push Ron up the steps towards the door. But as she did so there was an insane cackle coming from behind them. They all spun round and came face to face with Bellatrix Lestrange and two death eaters whose faces were covered by black robes.

"Cruciatus!" she shouted, her wand rose at lightening speed and a jet of green light flew towards them.

"Protego!" Harry, Ron and Hermione yelled at the same time; but instead of a small shield of light forming in front of each of them, one big shield formed covering all three of them. It rippled as the curse hit it but did not break. The curse rebounded backwards and hit the death eater on Bellatrixs left. Bellatrix started to point her wand at the shield again along with the remaining death eater.

"Cast together, it will be stronger" she yelled at him. At that moment Draco Malfoy came out of the shop door next to Bellatrix and she spun round with her wand aimed straight at him.

"Accio Draco" Hermione screamed and Malfoy flew threw the air and landed in a heap at her side, but behind the shield which had remained intact because of Harry and Ron.

"Protego!" Ginny shouted running up from behind them and the shield spread to cover the entire width of the alleyway.

Harry was concentrating hard on the shield like Lupin had taught them but he could still hear people crying and yelling for help behind them.

Bellatrix stared open-mouthed as the masked death eater continued to throw curses and jinxes at the shield but it continued to hold, protecting everyone on Harry's side.

"Down here!" came a yell as Tonks, Moody and Kingsley came flying down Diagon Alley and emerged through the shocked crowd behind Harry.

"Run now" shouted Bellatrix fleeing back towards Gringotts and tearing down towards Knockturn Alley.

"Petrificus Totalus!" screamed Ginny hitting the fleeing death eater sending him crashing to the floor, frozen and unable to move.

"Nice work Ginny!" exclaimed Tonks who was poking the frozen death eater. Aurors continued running down through the crowd, and raced on towards Knockturn Alley on Moodys' orders to try and catch Bellatrix Lestrange. Moody himself, was tying up the other death eater that had been knocked out by Bellatrixs rebounded curse. "Anton Dolohov" he said as he pulled back the hood. "Who've you got Tonks?"

"What the … Charles Baddock, Moody! We weren't watching him were we?"

"You sure?" said Moody using his wand to lift up his prisoner to move closer to Tonks so that he could get a closer look. "Jeepers it is too!"

"Baddock?" said Ron. "Isn't there a Malcolm Baddock in your year Ginny?"

"Yeah he is" she answered, as an almighty shriek came from behind them, startling quite a few people.

"You're alive! Come here, what happened, arghhh!" Mrs Weasley shrieked again as she saw the death eaters on the floor.

"Calm down Molly, they are fine" said Tonks.

"You've really got the hang of that shield charm now haven't you" added Moody "Though I didn't know Ginny was having lessons too".

Mrs Weasley looked down at her. "But she's not! How did you know it?"

"Harry taught me in DA meetings last term, the small shield I mean, I don't know how I knew to add on to theirs, I just kind of did".

"Draco!" came a woman's voice as she walked out of the shop that Draco had come out of earlier, and walked sedately across the alley towards him, looking down her nose at Harry and Hermione as she passed them.

"I told you to wait for me". Harry recognised Narcissa Malfoy from the Quidditch World Cup two years ago.

"Funny seeing you here Mrs Malfoy" stated Moody, rising up off his knee to look her in the eye.

"I don't know what you mean Alastor; I was in the shop getting Draco a new cauldron the whole time. You can check if you like. Come Draco we have to get your books straighten your robes". Draco had just gotten up off the floor and was looking a bit dishevelled. As Narcissa swept off back up the Alley, Draco glared hatefully at Hermione and then stalked off after his mother.

"Well you'd think he would be more grateful wouldn't you after you just saved his life" Harry said to Hermione.

"Yeah why did you do that?" asked Ron.

"Enough people have died already, don't you think!" Hermione snapped back.

"Look at the bright side" said Moody joining them "He owes you a debt now and you never know when it may come in handy". Harry thought back to when he saved Peter Pettigrew and Dumbledore had told him the same thing then.

"You did the right thing Hermione dear and I'm proud of you" Mrs Weasley told her and Hermione went bright red but looked pleased with herself all the same.

Kingsley came running up then with another auror that Harry recognised as Dawlish. He was one of the aurors that had tried to arrest Dumbledore in his office last year on Fudges' orders.

"No sign of her, we are still searching but she's vanished by the looks of it" Kingsley told Moody.

"Right, Dawlish" commanded Moody "Get back to the ministry and get the transportation department to check if the floo network in and out of Knockturn Alley has been used in the last half hour. Kingsley, get Beckett and then the two of you and Tonks can take Baddock and Dolohov back to the dungeons. I'll meet you there in a bit; I'm going to take Molly and the kids' home".

Kingsley ran back down to a group of aurors to, presumably, fetch Beckett. It was only then that Harry realised what Moody was wearing. Under his black robe he was wearing a green tartan kilt with a pink shirt and leg warmers.

"It was you!" grinned Harry. Moody look confused. "At the chemist window, you winked at me" explained Harry; Moodys face pulled what looked like a smile, while the others still gazed at Harry puzzled.

One port key later they were all back at Grimmauld Place. Hermione had run in and got their potion ingredients as that was all they had left to do and then Moody had brought them home. "Tea Alastor?" Mrs Weasley asked as she rushed around the kitchen getting food ready. With all the commotion they hadn't gotten round to having breakfast.

"Ron go and send your father an owl telling him we are all okay and are back at Sirius' so we won't be meeting him for lunch". But there was no need because as she finished her sentence Mr Weasley came tearing in through the kitchen door.

"Are you alright, I just heard" he gasped.

"They're fine Arthur. Right I'll leave them with you; I've got to get back to the Ministry" said Moody.

"Thank you Alastor. Will you be back for dinner? I'm cooking roast beef" asked Mrs Weasley.

"I'm not sure Molly, I'll let you know later" he called as he left the kitchen. As the door closed, Mr Weasley sat at the kitchen table as Ron and Hermione told him all about their encounter with Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry sat back letting them tell it; thinking about how peculiar the whole event had been. He looked at Ron's' face as he spoke a mile a minute with a huge grin on it, and Mr Weasley gazed open-mouthed at him, hooked on every word. Every now and then Hermione and Mrs Weasley would jump in and add a bit to the story too. 

"Merlin's beard" exclaimed Mr Weasley at the end. "And you're sure there were only three. You didn't see anyone else hanging around that may have looked out of place, well except the Malfoys I mean".

"No Dad" said Ron. "But then we were a bit busy to really notice anyone else Mr Weasley" added Hermione.

"Oh but you noticed Draco, Hermione" Ron said sarcastically.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Hermione demanded spinning round to glare at Ron. 

"Now, now dears; I think we have all had enough excitement for one day" Mrs Weasley intervened, putting two large plates of sandwiches on the table. "Take one plate each and go to your rooms and put your new school things away. You can tidy your rooms too while your at it, your room looks like a bombs hit it Ron. That should keep you occupied till dinners ready".

Hermione picked up one of the large plates and stalked out of the kitchen with Ginny hot on her heels, glaring at Ron as she passed. Ron snatched the other plate and Harry followed him out.

"Okay spill, what's going on?" Harry asked Ron as soon as the bedroom door had shut. "Don't know what you mean" Ron replied grumpily, banging the plate of sandwiches down on to the chest of drawers that they shared.

"You know exactly what I mean, snapping at Hermione again. I've seen you sneaking looks at her all the time too. And there's the Krum thing when you were jealous of him. If you want to go out with her, just ask her. It'll make life a bit easier for everyone else too without the pair of you bickering constantly".

Ron sat on the bed and looked round at Harry thoroughly depressed. "I have asked her Harry" he admitted picking a small patch of worn carpet to stare at, waiting for Harry's' response. "She said she wanted to think about it. She wasn't sure whether now was the right time and didn't want it to affect ALL our relationships. She said it would change things and we had to think of you too".

"When?" asked Harry incredulously, how could Ron not tell him something this important.

"Well when we are out in a group I suppose, she thinks you'll feel uncomfortable" Ron answered.

"Not that you idiot!" Harry laughed "When did you ask her?"

"Well there's no need to laugh at me Harry; look how long it took you to ask Cho out, moping round the place all the time. You weren't exactly a bundle of laughs to be around then. I mean, are we from different planets or something, I just don't get it! If a girl asked a boy out we would be right there! But if a boy asks a girl out, she has to THINK about it. She leaves you in agony for weeks while she discusses it with her little pack of friends and then summons YOU to give her decision".

"You've been waiting for a while haven't you?" chuckled Harry trying really hard to keep a straight face.

"Uh hello!! Teenager in pain here! Stop laughing. Last time I tell you anything personal". Ron went back to staring at the floor moodily. Then after a few seconds silence continued "…and to top it all off, she decides to stop our evil greasy haired arch-nemesis from being jinxed by one of his own; leaving our shield weaker and us in danger from an insane mad witch. I'm beginning to think there's a pattern what with Krum as well".

"Your comparing Viktor Krum to Draco Malfoy?" laughed Harry; this was just too funny.

"She goes for the bad ones, the EXCITING ones!" Ron continued ranting punching the pillow on his bed, completely oblivious now to Harry. Striding over to the chest of drawers, Harry grabbed a sandwich and then strode over to where Ron was sitting on the bed and shoved it in to his mouth to shut him up.

"You've completely lost it mate. You should have told me all this earlier. I wondered why you'd been sniping at each other … Look I know you and I know Hermione. I bet you anything she's just letting you stew; getting her own back for when you didn't ask her to the Yule Ball. She likes you just as much as you like her, I'm sure of it! Now stop acting like a nutter and stop with the snide little comments. She can see you're jealous; hell we can ALL see you're jealous. So maybe if you start to act like you don't care anymore then she'll get bored and give you an answer. Oh and you never answered when it was you asked her out".

"Beginning of the summer holidays" Ron replied "when we first both got here. I figured with everything that had happened with Sirius maybe I should ask her while I still could".

The piece of sandwich Harry had been eating got stuck in his throat when he heard this and he had to swallow hard. "You did the right thing Ron. Did you tell Hermione that was why you were asking her?"

"No" replied Ron reaching towards the plate for another sandwich but Harry stopped him by moving it. "Well maybe you should".

Ron got up and looked at Harry. "Do you really think it will help?"

"I don't know" answered Harry. "But if it was me, I'd want to know something like that". Ron took one last desperate look at Harry and left the room. Harry listened to his feet climbing the stairs and suddenly felt the urge to look through the photo album that he'd been hiding at the bottom of his trunk since his birthday. Wanting to see a picture of Sirius smiling and not the memory of him screaming that Harry recalled so vividly from his dream. And maybe, just maybe, tomorrow he would start going through Sirius' belongings.

Half an hour later Ron still hadn't come back and Harry was just putting the photo album back in the trunk when he heard the front door slam shut. He walked out on to the landing and looked over the banister down in to the hallway. Remus Lupin and Mr Weasley walked up from the direction of the kitchen to meet Mad Eye Moody and, to Harry's horror, Professor Severus Snape. Harry hadn't had much to do with him since the episode with the pensieve and he wasn't in any hurry to encounter him now. 

As Harry moved back from the banister he caught sight of Ron and Hermione on the landing above him, their faces reflected on the glass dial of an old barometer hanging on the opposite wall. They too were watching the meeting down in the hallway. As Harry looked upwards he also saw Ginny on the next landing up from Ron.

"I don't think we need to discuss the matter any further here where LITTLE ears could be listening" Snapes voice boomed suddenly and Harry quickly retreated in to his room not daring to look down to see if Snape had seen them. Within a couple of seconds there were two pops and Hermione and Ron appeared beside him. A little after that Ginny snuck in to the room having taken the stairs.

"What do you think that was all about then?" Ron asked nobody in particular. "Probably about what happened in Diagon Alley. I guess we'll find out at dinner" answered Hermione still watching the open bedroom door. 

"You guys have no sense of adventure" laughed Ginny and smiling menacingly held up four pairs of Fred and Georges' extendable ears from her right hand, waving them in the air.

Five minutes later all four of them were hiding in the corner at the end of the hallway in the alcove by the study with the wire from the extendable ears trailing further along the corridor and poking underneath the study door. Ginny and Hermione were pressed up against the wall listening, with Harry and Ron knelt down and peered round the corner to check nobody came up the corridor. All of them were wearing the receiver end of the extendable ears. 

Professor Snape was just talking about there being no organised meeting between Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, when a loud cough came from behind them. They all spun round to come face to face with a red faced, clearly angry Tonks. 

"Where did you come from?" asked a stunned Ron peering round her at the wall. Tonks took two steps backwards and pulled aside a large black and grey tapestry, revealing the stairs which were hidden behind it.

"Down" she said simply but authoratively pointing down the stairs. Without a word Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny trudged nervously down the steps.

"What are you doing Tonks dear, I thought you were going up to the meeting?" Mrs Weasley asked as they all entered the kitchen and Tonks came in behind them.

__

"I thought the kids might be hungry so I called them for dinner instead" she replied taking a seat at the end of the table. Mrs Weasley looked at the tapestry covering the stairs they had just come down and then at the teenagers stood before her but she didn't say anything. She knows, Harry thought to himself as they all sat at the table with Tonks; and he wondered why she never told them off. Instead she had Ginny and Hermione lay the table with thirteen place settings while she carried on monitoring the dinner.

Twenty minutes later the kitchen door opened and Mr Weasley, Moody, Lupin and Professor Snape came in and sat at the table. As soon as they were seated Mrs Weasley started serving dinner. Snape was glaring at Harry when Mr Weasley asked them how much they had heard. After a brief few seconds silence Hermione bravely answered _"only a bit … just about Mrs Malfoy not meeting anyone and then Tonks found us". _

Mrs Weasley sat down at the table having finished putting all the food on the table just as the door opened and Percy and the twins came in. _"Right well, now everyone is here I suppose we had better fill you in" _said Moody.

The Floo network had been checked but no fireplaces in Knockturn Alley had been used an hour before or an hour after Bellatrixs' attack. _"What about Portkeys?" _asked Percy. 

__

"None registered and the Department of Transport has been really strict with those lately as well so it's more likely they apparated in somewhere and it's not likely that anyone who has business down Knockturn Alley is going to admit to have been there let alone seen anything" replied Tonks. 

__

"The question is was she there to meet anyone or was she there for Harry?" Mr Weasley stated to nobody in particular. _"Well there's been no dementor activity at all in Little Whinging since the day Harry left" _Moody grunted _" which makes you wonder how they knew he had been removed, somebody must have told them, either that or you were seen leaving Harry"_. 

__

"No Minerva would have known if anybody had been around" Mrs Weasley replied _"it has to be a coincidence because for it to have happened that soon would mean that it was one of us that told … him"._

"Everyone has a price" Snape stated matter of factly. 

__

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mrs Weasley said angrily.

Moody quickly changed the subject; he had questioned Charles Baddock and Anton Dolohov but hadn't got much information out of them. _"We tried Veritaserum but even that didn't help much. Seems Baddock may have been under the imperius curse. Either that or he just wasn't in the loop"._

"Or he wasn't trusted enough to be given any information about the others" added Lupin.

__

"But you would know whether he was under the imperius curse Professor wouldn't you, after all that's why your supposed to be there" Harry said to Professor Snape. As soon as he had said it though he shrank back into his chair and gulped as Snapes' mouth curled at the edges in to his usual snarl.

__

"Unfortunately Mr Potter as the dark lords' followers have increased in number; I am not privy to the thoughts and inclinations of every single death eater".

"Do we know how long he's been with … Voldemort?" Percy asked.

__

"No" continued Moody _"Serverus has seen him a couple of times with the other death eaters but we don't know when he joined"._

"It's not like we have all the death eaters names in a nice filing cabinet complete with addresses" Snape added sarcastically.

__

"More peas anyone?" Mr Weasley announced quickly bewitching two bowls of peas to float up in the air; one shooting over to Mrs Weasley while the other hovered in front of Professor Snape.

"_What about Mr Dolohov" _Hermione asked watching the glares between Mrs Weasley and Professor Snape.

__

"Absolutely nothing out of him" continued Lupin.

__

"Oh I wouldn't say that" Moody interrupted. _"He smiled when we mentioned Randall Zeller; he knows something. And at least we know now that they had_ _something to do with his disappearance"._

"We still can't prove that either" added Snape sardonically.

"_Where will you put them?" _asked Ron _"They've already broken one lot of death eaters out of Azkaban its not exactly safe to send them back there is it"._

"That is still being decided" answered Lupin. 

__

"And I still haven't finished with them yet" added Moody. 

After a few moments silence Fred asked about Narcissa Malfoy. _"It can't just be a coincidence; her husband one of the main death eaters has just escaped and she just happens to be in Diagon Alley when her mad cousin attacks Harry? That was no accident she had to have been meeting her"._

"Like I've said all day now, she was not there to meet Bellatrix Lestrange, there was no planned meeting".

"How can you be so sure?" asked Ginny boldly. _"Now I know we aren't supposed to ask too many questions about what you do but how can you be sure that your getting the right information about what's going on? How do you know that Voldemort isn't telling you what he wants us to think is happening? Have you seen Lucius Malfoy? How do we know that you aren't lying?"._

"Ginny! What on earth are you saying, apologise now!" shrieked Mrs Weasley as Mr Weasley choked on the piece of beef he was eating and had to be slapped repeatedly on the back by Lupin. Harry looked at Ron and Hermione who were both gawping open-mouthed at Ginny then he looked over to Professor Snape to see his reaction. 

Calmly Snape put down his knife and fork and turned to Mrs Weasley and said through gritted teeth, _"thank you for dinner Molly it was lovely but I really must be leaving now. Things to do, as YOU know". _He stood, glared at Harry and Ginny as he walked towards the kitchen door, then left.

__

"Ginny Imelda Weasley I have NEVER been so mortified by you in my entire life; it even comes close to the humiliation of Fred and George getting expelled from school".

"Hey we didn't get expelled we left voluntarily" interrupted George.

__

"Only before Umbridge and Filch had a chance to throw you out".

"Shut up Percy!" Fred, George and Mrs Weasley shouted in unison.

__

"You had no right to say those things. Serverus is risking his life to help us and … while I may not be a huge supporter of his; I do trust Dumbledore and I will NOT have you questioning his decisions. Do you understand me?!" Mrs Weasley spat the words out as she stood at the end of the table, her shadow towering down over everyone while she glared angrily at Ginny.

__

"Yes mum" answered Ginny meekly but Harry noticed that she wasn't cowering in her seat like the rest of the people at the table were.

__

"Now I think its time you went to your rooms, you have an hour till bedtime. You can help Harry revise for his apparition test", Mrs Weasley spoke slightly calmer this time.

__

"Not you Percy, sit" she said as Percy rose from his chair to leave with Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Everybody walked quickly towards the kitchen door. Harry was the last out and just as he was shutting the door he distinctly heard Moody say _"Well the girl's got a point" _but he was immediately silenced by a flying tea towel courtesy of Mrs Weasley.


	6. Chapter Six

Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari 

Chapter Six

Harry, Ron and Hermione went upstairs to Harry's room but they never got around to helping Harry revise. Ginny stomped up to her own room saying that she had to finish her history of magic essay as it had to be handed in on the first day of term; which was only five days away now. But Harry doubted she was really in any hurry to get upstairs and finish her homework. He wondered what had come over her lately as she had been acting really moody. It couldn't be anything to do with Dean Thomas because Hermione said they were getting on fine and were writing to each other quite a lot. Even Hermione had admitted that Ginny had been acting oddly lately but said that when she asked Ginny if she was okay Ginny just snapped at her saying she was fine.

Harry brought his attention back to the conversation that Ron and Hermione were having as they all sat around the fireplace in his room. Every now and then they would glance over their shoulders to check that Phineas was not back in his portrait, as they wanted to be sure that they were having a private conversation. They were all still nervous that Dumbledore may turn up and tell them that they are discussing things that they shouldn't be. Phineas was still absent however, and was presumably snoring away in his rocking chair in his other portrait in Dumbledores' office.

None of them believed that Narcissa Malfoy had been there inadvertently at the same time as Bellatrix; especially as her husband had just escaped from Azkaban. Though Hermione tried reasoning that surely if Mrs Malfoy was there to meet the death eaters then she would have been meeting up with her husband and not her sister. And why would they meet on Diagon Alley when it was being so carefully watched? Surely they would have better meeting in some dark corner of Knockturn Alley. 

Harry was finding it all too confusing; there were so many questions and no answers. He had found it easy earlier to believe that Bellatrix had been meeting Narcissa and when she saw them walking towards her had just taken advantage of the situation to try and get revenge for what had happened in the Department of Mysteries a few months before. But Hermione had a way of seeing all angles of a situation and he had to admit that she could be right; it wasn't as straight forward as he had thought. 

Ron also wasn't as resolute about Bellatrix being there to meet Narcissa but he was still convinced that the Malfoys were there for some reason after all if Bellatrix wasn't meeting Narcissa who was she there meeting, especially on Diagon Alley.

After a while they still couldn't decide on the most plausible explanation and were going round in circles, so Harry changed the subject to Snape. Ginnys' outburst had shocked them all but they all had to admit that whilst they had only discussed it among themselves; they had been asking the same question for the past five years.

"_We're missing something" _Ron said wearily _"for mum to react like that there has got to be something we haven't been told"._

_"I wonder what he meant about everybody having a price." _Harry thought out loud.

_"Well it's obvious isn't it" _Hermione stated _"he means that somebody in the Order is leaking information to Voldemort. That's why your mother had a go at him Ron. And judging by her reaction I would say that it isn't the first time that the subject of a spy has been mentioned. That's what we've not been told"._

_"Moody" _Harry added then paused.

_"What about Moody?" _Ron asked when Harry didn't continue.

_"Well he never said anything when your mum was arguing with Snape" _Harry answered.

_"Well would you want to get involved in an argument with my mother?" _Ron joked.

_"I mean" _continued Harry _"well I think Hermione may have a good point. He is back working at the Ministry now and you would think that if it was the first time that somebody spying on us was mentioned, well … surely he would have said something but he didn't he just sat there"._

_"But Moody sees conspiracies everywhere anyway" _replied Ron.

_"But right at the top of the Order?" _Hermione added doubtfully. _"Very few people knew about getting Harry out, it happened so quick, we only found out a couple of minutes before he got here. And Moody said earlier activity in Little Whinging stopped the same day that you left Harry. The only people who knew were your parents Ron, Fred and George, Professor Lupin, Tonks, Moody and Professor Mcgonagall. Oh and Dumbledore because he must have sent them"._

_"And Mundungus" _added Harry.

_"Huh! How did he know" _Hermione asked.

_"Well I … Professor Mcgonagall said that Mundungus had seen Bellatrix on the High Street which was why they were taking me. I never actually saw him"._

_"I thought it was just dementors that were in Little Whinging" _Ron was getting really confused. _"What was she doing there?"_

_"I know … AND on the same street I was on half an hour earlier come to think of it" _Harry realised.

_"What" _shrieked Hermione _"But then maybe that's what has been discussed before; maybe that is the leak. Somebody told Voldemort exactly where you were and that you weren't at home. Maybe that's why they brought you straight here early with the port key"._

Harry sat and listened as Ron and Hermione went over all the possibilities again but his head was spinning from trying to make sense of it all. The more they talked the more confusing it got and the more questions they came up with. Who knew that Harry had left the house for the afternoon? 

Harry stared back over his shoulder again to check that Phineas still wasn't back but the portrait was still empty and then it hit him. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten to ask; he spun back round with a huge grin to face Ron and Hermione and was about to ask them both whether they were finally going out together yet, when he was interrupted by a knock at the bedroom door; they had all been so busy talking that they didn't hear the floor boards creak as somebody came up the stairs. Mrs Weasley bustled in and announced it was time for bed. 

She put her hand on Hermione's shoulder and steered her towards the door; but just as she reached the door she turned and took her wand out of her apron pocket. She pointed it back towards the beds and as she gently flicked it in her right hand, said _"Mobulus". _At this command Harry and Ron's pyjamas jumped out from underneath their pillows and started dancing up and down in front of them, puffed out like they already had people wearing them. 

_"Bed now, I'll be back in a minute to check; you've got to be up early tomorrow for your test Harry dear" _then the door closed and Harry got ready for bed.

Mrs Weasley woke Harry early the next morning. He was too nervous to eat but managed to force down some dry toast just to try and stop Mrs Weasley flapping around him. He couldn't believe the test had come around so quickly. It only seemed like he had had a few lessons; just thinking of it was making his stomach churn. Though he could understand why Dumbledore had arranged for them all to take the test early now, and they did have a habit of getting themselves in to tricky situations. It didn't help that he hadn't gotten round to doing much revision either. He had lain awake most of the night trying to go over everything he had been taught in his head and now he was exhausted.

It was 5.30am and Ron was still in bed; Mrs Weasley had told him to go back to sleep and after what sounded like 'good luck Harry' Ron rolled over and stuck a pillow over his head while Harry quickly got dressed.

_"Any minute now" _Mrs Weasley announced cheerfully as she brought Harry a glass of pumpkin juice. Harry was about to ask what was going to happen when Mr Weasley, Tonks, Moody and Professor Dumbledore piled in to the kitchen from behind the tapestry.

_"Well it is quicker and not so much of a secret passage anymore now you know about it" _Dumbledore smiled at Harry, his blue eyes gleaming over the top of his purple half moon spectacles. 

The pantry door opened behind Dumbledore and Kreacher staggered out glaring at the crowd that had amassed in the kitchen. As he crossed the floor mumbling to himself Harry noticed how wrinkly he had gotten and was about to say 'Good Morning' to him when Kreacher slammed the kitchen door behind him. Never mind Harry thought to himself, he had more important things to worry about.

_"Right are you ready Harry" _Mr Weasley asked and they all left the kitchen, Mrs Weasley coming to wave them off at the front door.

Two hours later Harry was back in the kitchen of number 12 Grimmauld Place sitting at the table with a huge grin on his face as Hermione, Ron and Ginny came in for their breakfast.

"What are you grinning at?" Ginny yawned grumpily.

"Harry's just passed his apparition test" Mrs Weasley beamed proudly, placing two large plates of sausages, eggs and bacon in the middle of the large wooden table next to the toast.

Harry told them all about the test as they helped themselves to breakfast. Harry was so much hungrier now that the test was over.

Dumbledore had stayed with Harry the entire time, even when he had to apparate with the examiner. He had sent Tonks ahead with one examiner to the fourth floor where Harry had to apparate to first to make sure the area was safe and Mr Weasley had remained in the test centre on the sixth floor for when they came back. 

The hardest part was when Harry had to apparate to the surface as that was more complicated, but he did it; and when he appeared next to the red telephone box Moody still jumped out of his skin even though he had been expecting him. Dumbledore had to act fast to deflect the stunning spell that Moody had sent flying towards Harry but he was not quite so lucky in stopping the second one, which hit the examiner. Harry had laughed till his sides ached when Dumbledore had looked up from the examiner and said to Moody with a completely straight face 'Nice to see age isn't slowing you down Alastor but I do not think knocking out Mr Fredricks is going to help Harry pass his exam!'.

Back in the test centre Harry went to do his theory test while a healer was reviving the examiner. The test had been easier than Harry thought it would be; nobody had mentioned before that it was multiple-choice.

"That was because we needed to make sure you worked hard at learning all the correct answers and didn't guess them" Mrs Weasley interrupted. "We did the same to Ron and Hermione too because it is very important that you know exactly what you are doing".

Harry, Ron and Hermione talked about the questions they'd all had on their test papers while Ginny listened, glancing moodily over at her mother who had not yet said a word to her. Mrs Weasley started clearing away all the breakfast things off the table while the scouring pad, sponge and tea cloth danced in the air above the sink, washing and drying the dishes as Mrs Weasley placed them in the there.

An hour later Harry, Ron and Hermione were all in the study. Harry and Ron were sat at the large oak desk trying to finish a new quidditch strategy that they had been working on so that the team could get practising as soon as the tryouts were over. Angelina Johnson given George a minititure quidditch pitch to pass on to Harry and they were leaning over it moving the players around with their wands. Harry had to find two more chasers to replace Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell. Ginny had already agreed to take over Angelina's position so that Harry could return as Seeker.

Whilst they were debating a 'M' formation, Hermione was sat in the same plump red armchair that Harry had been sat in when Dumbledore had explained to him about Sirius and the adoption. 

"Pity you don't put that much effort in to your homework" she called over the top of last weeks copy of The Quibbler.

"Ha Ha" said Ron sarcastically "At least this is more interesting than that rubbish".

Hermione had taken out a subscription to The Quibbler after they had printed an article for Harry months ago. It had helped Harry, and the Order, gain a lot of support by convincing people that Lord Voldemort had returned. Since then though, the content of the paper had gone back to strange articles on non-existent creatures, weird crop circles in Devon and bizarre interpretations of magical phenomena. There were occasionally interesting articles on Runes and it had a small column at the back of the paper advising on 'Death Eater Hotspots - Where NOT To Travel!', which is why Hermione still read it.

Ron got up from the desk and walked over to the fire. Snatching the copy of The Quibbler out of her hands he laughed as he read out the title of the article she was reading. "Ah the celebrity page … let's see … 'Love Spells and Muggles - How magic was misused … The great Taylor debate continues as Ministry officials investigate, yet again, whether legendary witch Elizabeth Taylor has been passing spells to her muggle friends to help them with their love lives. The elderly witch, famous for her acting skills has already been investigated twice; once for misuse of love spells and secondly for using magic to win acting roles … blah blah blah … Hermione you really need to get a life!"

"I'm not the one who needs to get a life!" she shouted huffily as she jumped up and down trying to get the newspaper back off Ron; but she wasn't very successful as there was at least a five inch difference in their heights.

"Insulting me is not going to make me give you the paper back" Ron laughed and held the paper up even higher.

"Right then, maybe this will!" Hermione declared with a sly smile on her face. Harry burst out laughing as Hermione launched herself at Ron in a rugby tackle and started tickling him around his waist. Ron was caught off guard and tripped over the wooden magazine rack that was beside the armchair and they both toppled over. He landed on the floor in a heap with Hermione on top of him. Hermione reached up and grabbed the newspaper out of his hand "I think that is mine".

Harry carried on laughing as Ron started tickling Hermione making her drop it. "Stop it" she laughed, struggling to get away. "Make me" laughed Ron and Hermione leant forward and kissed him just as the door to the study opened. Mrs Weasley took one look at Harry grinning then looked round the corner of the door and saw Hermione sitting on top of Ron. Ron and Hermione turned their faces towards, Hermione still pinning Ron's arms above his head, and they both went bright red.

"Oh … um" Mrs Weasley said before she backed out of the room and shut the door. Harry could not help himself, he burst out laughing again as they got up off the floor.

"Oh dear" said Hermione kneeling down on the floor again to pick up all the pieces of the paper that had scattered over the rug when she dropped it.

"Your faces!" Harry laughed as tears ran down his face and he had to put his head on his arms on the desk to try and stop laughing.

"Yeah it's real funny Harry" Ron said looking worried.

"Well look at the bright side" Harry said more calmly as he sat back up straight, having calmed down a bit but still holding his side "you don't have to tell her now do you!" and he started laughing again.

Ron picked up a red cushion from the armchair and threw it at him.

Half an hour later things had just calmed down and Harry and Ron were back working on the quidditch strategy again when Mr Weasley came in to the study looking slightly flustered, wanting Ron to come in to the kitchen with him. Ron left and then re-emerged twenty minutes later, his face even redder than his hair.

"Oh that was so embarrassing, and it's all your fault" he said pointing a finger at Hermione accusingly.

"You've just had 'the birds and the bees' talk haven't you" she guessed trying to look sympathetic while struggling not to laugh.

"Well I guess that's one bonus to not having parents" Harry grinned "I get to skip that one!"

"And mine aren't here to do it either so I miss it too!" laughed Hermione unable to contain herself anymore.

But Ron turned towards them both with an evil grin on his face and folded his arms. "Oh you think so, do you?" he smiled. The smiles on Harry's and Hermione's faces wavered a bit as they looked at Ron.

"Hermione, mum is waiting for you upstairs in her office and Dad is waiting for you Harry in the kitchen!"

The next couple of days flew by; Mrs Weasley gave them all lots of jobs to do and Harry decided it was because she wanted to keep Ron and Hermione busy. The chat with Mr Weasley had been really embarrassing and Harry was glad when it was over; but at the same time it had made him really happy to think that the Weasleys did think of him as a son and felt responsible for him enough to have taken him aside and talked to him in the first place. It was just mice to feel wanted, even if Harry himself still wanted Sirius.

The day before they were to travel back to Hogwarts Mrs Weasley asked Harry to stay behind in the kitchen after breakfast. She sent Ron, Ginny and Hermione upstairs to pack their trunks. Harry tried thinking back over the last couple of days to try and think if he had done something wrong but he could not think of anything.

Mrs Weasley closed the kitchen door behind Ron and came back and sat at the table, directly across from Harry. They sat in silence as she refilled his glass of pumpkin juice from the jug that was in the middle of the table. Knotting her fingers together nervously she looked in to Harry's green eyes before she spoke and Harry wondered what could be upsetting her so much, but he didn't have long to wait to find out.

"Well Harry dear … the thing is … oh this is hard" she looked quickly round the room for inspiration. "I guess I shouldn't have let this wait so long, but you seemed quite happy … and after everything that's happened to you … I just wanted you to be happy".

"What's wrong Mrs Weasley?" Harry asked worriedly.

"It is Dumbledore's instructions Harry, he wants you to sort through Sirius' things before you back to school. He thinks it is important that you deal with it before term starts. I shouldn't have left it so long… he knew somehow that you hadn't done it yet and he sent me a letter. He put another letter for you Harry, in with mine; for you to read before you go upstairs".

Mrs Weasley looked down and reached in to the pocket on the front of her orange flowery apron, then pulled out a small piece of parchment that had a Hogwarts seal on it.

"I'll leave you to read this Harry" she said as she passed it over the table. Harry took it reluctantly, he had deliberately been avoiding the upper floors of the house since he had got there so that he would not have to deal with Sirius' belongings. It was only the last week or so that he had stopped dreaming of Sirius falling through the darkness.

As Harry stared at the parchment Mrs Weasley rose from her chair and came round to Harry's side of the table. "If you want to come with you Harry, or if you need me at all, I'll be in the study cleaning". As Harry continued staring at the envelope in his hands, she gently kissed Harry on the top of his head and patted his left shoulder before she left the kitchen.

Harry stared at the parchment for a couple more minutes, thoughts of Sirius now racing through his mind. A dirty but happy Sirius asking Harry to come and live with him after they had captured Peter Pettigrew at Hogwarts; a brooding Sirius stood in the study describing the Black family tree to Harry as they looked at the tapestry on the wall; an excited Sirius singing while he was putting up Christmas decorations when they had come for Christmas eight months before; then a shocked, open-mouthed Sirius as he fell backwards in to the veil.

Harry couldn't bear to think of him like that any longer and quickly opened the parchment. There was just one simple sentence written inside, in emerald green ink.

You must deal with the past before you can face the future

It was just that, it was not even signed. Harry stared at it for a few more minutes realising that Dumbledore was just trying to help him deal with all the thoughts in his head; about Sirius and the prophecy and what he was expected to do. But at the same time he felt resentful at being pushed in to doing things he did not want to do. But then did he really have a choice? 

Harry took a deep breath and decided he had to do it now, but by himself. He disapparated up to the corridor on the top floor outside Sirius' bedroom. He did not want to bump in to Ron and Hermione on the way and have to tell them what he was doing. He put his hand on the bronze door handle, turned it and walked in.

Harry closed the door quietly behind him then leaned his head against it, closing his eyes for a few seconds not really wanting to turn around. But he did. After opening his eyes and turning round slowly Harry took in the contents of Sirius' bedroom. It looked exactly the same as when Harry had last been in here with Sirius; except for the corner by the window that used to be full of straw for Buckbeak's bed. That was now piled with boxes. The pictures on the walls were still the same though the portrait next to the bed caught Harry's attention. A wizard in dark brown robes on a wooden bench looked familiar but Harry could not place him. Maybe he just remembered him from the last time he was in here. Looking round again the bed covers were the same and there was still a bare wooden floor. As Harry breathed in his stomach lurched as he realised the room still smelt of Sirius. 

Not knowing where to start, he went and sat on the end of the bed and stared out of the window at the bright blue sky. After a while of trying to think of nothing and not succeeding Harry got up off the bed and walked over to the wardrobe and opened the large wooden doors. 

At the bottom of the wardrobe there were three boxes lined up one by one. They were labelled in Mrs Weasleys handwriting 'Charity-clothes', 'Charity-other' and 'Storage - Kreacher DO NOT TOUCH'. They were empty at the moment so Harry figured Mrs Weasley wanted him to fill them with all the stuff that Sirius had in the wardrobe, which wasn't really a lot. Harry pulled the boxes out one at a time and decided that the wardrobe must have been magically expanded for them all to have fitted in like that. He started going through the coat-hangers first putting shirts, trousers and robes in to the charity box. He stopped when he came to a light blue Hawaiian shirt and smiled. Thinking back to when Sirius had sent an exotic bird to deliver Harry a letter when he was on the run from the Ministry of magic, Harry decided he must have bought this then, and he put it to one side for the storage box. A lot of clothing was old fashioned but still in quite good condition but Harry could not bear to keep too much. He kept two sets of plain smart robes as well as the Hawaiian shirt but put the rest of the clothes from the wardrobe in to the charity box. Taking one last look inside the empty wardrobe, Harry closed the doors and then went to the chest of drawers that were next to it. He figured he might as well carry on and get it over and done with.

He reached out and ran his right hand across the dark bronze coiled snakes that were the handles on the drawers. He looked back at the wardrobe and saw that it too had coiled snakes on it. Turning his attention back to the chest he pulled open the top drawer; it was empty though. He closed it and opened the next one down and carried on sorting through the t-shirts and shirts that were in it. He kept a couple of plain black t-shirts for himself and put the rest in the charity box then did the same with the clothes in the third drawer. 

The fourth drawer contained jumpers and Harry put quite a few of these in the storage box so that he could keep them for himself. But as he lifted up the last dark blue jumper that had been at the bottom of the drawer it was heavy and Harry realised there was something wrapped inside of it. Unfolding the jumper he found a brown mahogany box with a small silver catch keeping the lid down. As he looked closer he could see sets of initials etched in to the four corners of the lid. 'SB' was on the top left, 'JP' was top right, 'RL' was on the bottom left and 'PP' was on the bottom right. Harry sat on the bare floor and lifted the catch so that he could open the box.

On the top was a plain white envelope with Harry's name on. He opened it and pulled out the contents; coming face to face with the official adoption papers that Sirius had been waiting to give him. Harry put them back quickly in to the envelope not wanting to look too closely at them yet, and carried on looking through the contents of the box. There were more photographs of Sirius at school with James and Lupin (Peter Pettigrew was hiding shamefully in the corner with what looked suspiciously like a cigarette burn where his face should have been). There were also pictures of Harry, Sirius, Hermione and the Weasleys celebrating Christmas. Right at the bottom of the box were Sirius' letters from the Ministry of magic informing him of his OWL and NEWTs results; he had gotten top marks in all of them. Harry piled everything back in to the box and put it to one side with the Hawaiian shirt.

Turning back to the chest of drawers he pulled the last one open; it was full of Gryffindor school robes and scarves. They were well worn and faded and the badge was different. They had the Hogwarts crest on them but the Gryffindor colours around the edges with a maroon lining. As Harry looked through the different sized robes he could see more burn marks on some of the badges where the lion should have been and Harry laughed to himself as he realised Mrs Black must have had a go at these too as well as the tapestry.

One by one Harry lifted them all out in to the storage box; he couldn't give these away they were too personal; they were a part of what had made Sirius the good person that he had been. When the drawer was empty Harry went to push it back in but it jammed. Looking down he banged the left corner of the drawer to make it move but as it did Harry saw the wooden bottom of the drawer slide backwards revealing something red then it moved forwards again to the front. There was no carpet or a rug underneath and the floor was wooden so Harry put his hand in to the drawer and touched the panel on the bottom. He moved it gently backwards and forwards and saw what looked like the corner of a red leather book underneath. Carefully he lifted the entire drawer out and laid it on the floor. He saw straight away that it should have been deeper than it looked. In the back right-hand corner there was a slight gap in the wood. Harry squeezed his little finger in to it and was able to lift out the drawer bottom. Underneath were numerous diaries and letters scattered about. Harry lifted them all out then put the false drawer bottom back in then placed the whole thing back in the chest. After checking that the other drawer bottoms were real, he lifted up the pile of books and letters and took them over to the bed to read.

Starting with the earliest diaries, Harry began to read them. They started from Sirius' fourth year in Hogwarts and described all the trouble he had been in, the arguments he had had with his family and how close he had been to James. Harry cried a little when he read two whole pages about his grandparents and what they were like. They sounded a lot like Mr and Mrs Weasley; but he had never known what they were really like himself and never would. It was the same with his parents, he had to learn about them from other people and it really hurt. 

He flicked through the pages quicker now not wanting to dwell so much on things that he couldn't change. Professor Snape was mentioned quite a few times too but not in a very nice way. Half way through the fourth year Sirius started to write about James' crush on Lily and his attempts to try and get her to go out with him. 

Harry carried on skimming through them, skipping the parts where Sirius' family were occasionally mentioned.

After he had left school Sirius didn't write every day, only when something happened and even then it wasn't really detailed. Looking at the dates it was the year before Voldemort attacked his parents. It dawned on Harry that he never knew what Sirius did for a living before he had been arrested. Harry went back to the beginning of the diary but it didn't really say very much. Dumbledore and the Ministry were mentioned quite a lot so Harry figured he must have worked for them both the same as his father. The diary entries stopped the day that Harry's parents died and he realised it was because he had been taken in to Azkaban.

There was one diary left and the navy blue cover was battered and a bit muddy. It started from the day before Harry had run away from Privet Drive three years ago. Sirius wrote about revenge for James and lily but also about every time he had seen Harry. He wrote about times that Harry hadn't even noticed or felt that he was being watched. Walking through Hogsmede when he wasn't supposed to be there, quidditch practises, Hagrid's Care of magical Creatures lessons and lunch times out by the lake. He had risked so much to get that close to watch Harry and as he read what Sirius had written Harry knew that Sirius was there to protect and look after him more than just wanting revenge on Peter; Sirius knew that all they really had had been each other. 

The diary continues with sporadic entries and Harry carried on skimming through them. It wasn't as bright outside now and Harry knew that it was late afternoon and he would have to go downstairs soon; time had flown by. He read entries from when Sirius was on the run with Buckbeak and notes on the Triwizard Tournament. Sirius had even cut out the newspaper clipping from the Daily Prophet with Harry's photograph on it, announcing Harry had been picked to represent Hogwarts. The entries then moved on to when Sirius was back here in Grimmauld Place and Harry realised just how miserable and depressed Sirius had been; imprisoned in this house on his own. 

As he reached the back of the diary he found a pile of parchments held together with a piece of green string; and on the very last page there was a note to Harry from Sirius.

_Dear Harry,_

_If you are reading this then I am either a very happy old man who, in a fit of nostalgia, has passed on all his important things to you from when we first became a proper family, or something unexpected has happened and you are going through my things. Either way I hope you are happy and you're safe and I want you to read all my thought and feelings because I'm not very good at expressing them._

_There is a lot you can learn in these diaries about me and your parents; ignore the bits about my parents they aren't important anymore. You are my family now Harry, and not wanting to sound like Molly, but I hope you realise that I do love you just as much if not more than if you were my own son. Your parents would be so proud of you as am I and no matter what decisions you have to make in the future just make sure that you remember that; and that we ALL love you. _

_The letters that are tied in string are letters that I wrote to you but couldn't really send._

_Don't fear the future Harry or you'll forget to live._

_Love Sirius _

Tears were rolling down Harry's face fast as he ran his fingers across the paw print under Sirius' name and he knew he could not read the letters yet. As he was putting the tied letters back in to the diary he noticed that all his own letters that he had sent to Sirius were tucked in the flap at the back of it.

He closed the diary and put it back with the others. He sat staring at them for a while then looked round the room, grief flooding through him in waves. He looked out the window again and saw that it was getting darker still. He got up and went over to the wardrobe, picking up the Hawaiian shirt and the mahogany box. He put them on the bed with the diaries and went and got a black jumper and two t-shirts out of the storage box. They would still be a bit big for him but he didn't care he wanted to take them back to Hogwarts. He folded the flaps down on the boxes and moved them to the side of the room; he wanted the rest of the room to stay just as it was, Sirius' room.

His arms full, Harry walked back down to his own bedroom, hoping that Ron and Hermione wouldn't be there waiting for him wanting to know what he had been doing. As he opened the door however, he saw the room was empty and he went inside. He put all of Sirius' things in to his trunk and put his new school robes on top. He had to sit on the lid to squeeze it all in but he managed. Hedwig hooted at him from her cage in the corner and Harry went over and fed her. 

Realising that he had to go downstairs as it was nearly teatime, Harry washed his face and was just checking it wasn't too red in the mirror when the door swung open and Kreacher stomped in. Seeing Harry he turned back around to shuffle back out again but Harry shouted for him to come back.

"Kreacher thought the traitor master was downstairs, plotting with the other filth, not skulking round mistresses' house!"

"I am not the one who is skulking Kreacher. And besides I've been here for weeks and I've hardly seen you. What have you been doing?" Harry asked.

"Cleaning and tidying" he replied whilst looking shiftily round the room.

Yeah right Harry thought to himself. "Anyway you do know Kreacher I'm master of this house now don't you?".

"Mistress will be turning in her grave, filth running round her house, moving things" spat the bedraggled house elf.

"I don't care what you or the mistress think" Harry replied irritably, "I just want to make sure you know you have to do what I tell you. And I'm telling you this; you DON'T leave this house, you don't tell anyone what is said in this house, you do not change or take anything that Mrs Weasley does to this house, you do exactly what she tells you, you DO NOT touch anything that belonged to Sirius and you don't even go in Sirius' bedroom. Do you understand me?".

"Yes sir. Can Kreacher leave now? He has things to be doing" Kreacher replied, already backing himself out of the door.

"Yes go" Harry answered and the bedroom door swung shut again. Feeling a bit better now that he knew Kreacher would not be going through Sirius' things Harry took a deep breath and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

As Harry was approaching the kitchen he could hear voices behind the door and Ron laughing; it sounded like Tonks was re-enacting Moody's attack on Harry's apparition examiner. When he went in he was shocked to find a room full of people. Professor Dumbledore and Mrs Weasley were sat at the ends of the long wooden table. Fred, George and Lupin were sat alongside Ron, Hermione and Ginny on the right-hand side of the table. And opposite them Tonks, Moody and Professor Mcgonagall were sat alongside Mr Weasley. There were two place settings empty on their side of the table and Harry took the one furthest from Dumbledore.

"Ah there you are Harry, we were just about to come looking for you" Dumbledore smiled.

"Yeah but don't worry your not the only one that's late" Ron added "Percy hasn't turned up yet either".

"He's probably having a parchment crisis again" laughed George "It's either too thick or too thin and he'll be sat there with a ruler measuring it!".

"Now, now George, Percy takes his job very seriously, it is just a pity you two don't" Mrs Weasley said looking intently at the twins.

"We thought we would have a sort of farewell meal as your all returning to school tomorrow" Dumbledore explained to Harry before Fred and George could answer their mother.

"Percy will be on his way and should be here any minute or he would have sent an owl so we may as well get started before it all gets cold" added Mr Weasley watching the twins glower at Mrs Weasley.

Everybody started helping themselves to the vegetables that were piled in the bowls in the middle of the table while Mrs Weasley served the meat. Harry wasn't really hungry but he didn't want Mrs Weasley fussing over him so he filled his plate too.

As he was pushing his peas around with his fork he felt someone watching him and looked up to see Dumbledore watching him intently looking quite concerned. Harry gave him a little smile and then went back to his peas though he did try following Fred and Tonk's conversation about exploding cheeseburgers; but he could not concentrate. 

He could hear everyone chatting and laughing but it was like he was in a tunnel and they were all getting quieter and it was going dark. He knew he had to snap out of it but he couldn't; they were getting quieter and quieter still. He tried to turn his head to face them and bring them in to focus but it was just black. That's when he realised he had no control over himself and started to panic; it wasn't him that was blocking them out. The image of everyone in the room was getting further and further away from him; like a square television screen getting smaller and smaller.

All of a sudden Harry felt an enormous bolt of pain shoot through his body from his head and as he reached up to grab his scar he fell sideways off his chair on to the floor. It happened so quickly it scared the living daylights out of everyone at the table. As he lay shaking on the floor, clutching his scar and crying in pain Professor Dumbledore was the first to reach him. As they all gathered round trying to help, however, Harry's crying stopped and turned in to an eerie laughter. Suddenly letting go of his head, Harry sat bolt up straight and they could all see a red tint to Harry's eyes. Tilting his head to one side to look straight at Dumbledore Harry's eyes went completely red and he started laughing harder. 

Moody's wand was out in an instant but Dumbledore raised a hand to stop him. Mrs Weasley shrieked and grabbed Ginny. Ron and Hermione trying to pull them to the back of the kitchen.

"Leave him!" Dumbledore boomed as he gently touched Harry's scar with his wand hand. Then as suddenly as it began the laughter stopped and Harry slumped back to the floor again unconscious.

Lupin ran to the sink, grabbed a tea towel and ran it under the cold water tap. He came back over and gave it to Dumbledore to put on Harry's head. Slowly Harry's hand went up to his head as well and he groaned.

"Harry … Harry can you hear me?" Dumbledore asked him softly "I need you to sit up Harry".

With Lupin on one side and Dumbledore on the other they managed to sit Harry up. As he leant forward, Harry fought really hard not to be sick and he almost managed it. Luckily Mr Weasley was quick to grab an empty bowl. 

Harry managed to look around himself and saw everyone staring at him absolutely terrified but he didn't care. Tears cascaded down his face as he thought of what he had just seen and did not care what they thought of him. He pressed the cold towel harder against his scar as it was still burning.

"Harry, listen to me please, this is important. What did you see?" Dumbledore asked and Harry tried to look at him but when he did he could feel hatred surging threw him. Besides, how could he convey the utter horror he had just witnessed? It was pure evil. Harry vomited again.

"Harry it is important" Dumbledore persisted.

"Maybe now is not such a good idea, let him calm down first" Lupin suggested.

"No he needs to tell us now while it is still clear" Dumbledore was not going to stop asking Harry thought to himself. Harry turned to look at him again but still crying all he could whisper was 'killed'. Harry could see everyone moving in closer to try and hear what he was saying but Dumbledore gestured for them to stop.

"Who Harry … who did you see him kill".

Harry tried to speak again but it was like his throat was closing up and he was choking.

"Take your time Harry, but we need to know" Dumbledore added.

Harry looked in to Professor Dumbledores deep blue eyes for a few seconds to try and calm himself before trying again. Taking deep gagging breathes, this time he managed it. In a hoarse whisper he managed to say "Fudge … Kingsley".

The last thing he heard before he passed out again was Mrs Weasley screaming "Oh my god, where's Percy!".


	7. Chapter Seven

Firstly I would like to say a BIG thank you to Hermione1881 and Katie and Serena who helped me when I was pulling my hair out over the Sorting Hat song! Hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think. Thanks.

Chapter Seven  The Return Home Harry slowly tried to open his eyes as he listened to the whispering voices that were surrounding him. Lupin, Ron, Fred, George and Hermione were all sat round his bed talking about what happened in the kitchen, but they stopped abruptly when they saw Harry's eyes open. 

"Dumbledore" Harry croaked quietly; his throat was sore and his head still felt like someone was hammering nails in to it.

"He's not here Harry, he's gone to the Ministry with Alastor and Arthur" Lupin answered gently. At that moment the bedroom door opened and Mrs Weasley blew in closely followed by Tonks; both of them had been crying and Harry suddenly remembered what he had heard last before he passed out.

"Mrs Weasley, Percy ... I didn't see him," he said as she approached his bed.

"It's okay dear, Percy's fine, he is downstairs with Ginny" Mrs Weasley reassured him. "He was stuck in a ... cube tunnel, the train broke down and because it was so full he couldn't disapparate or he might have been seen".

"Is he a bit better now?" Hermione asked concerned

"He's a bit calmer ... still in shock though. He left Cornelius and Kingsley talking in the office because ... because he didn't want to miss the train. When I think ... he must have missed it all by minutes ... they said they were leaving too". Mrs Weasley now had tears running down her face and reached in to her apron pocket and brought out a large handkerchief.

Harry looked up in to Lupins lined face "It really happened then".

"Yes Harry I'm sorry" he answered softly.

"Was it ... was it quick?" Tonks asked shakily looking in to Harry's eyes and he remembered that she had been good friends with Kingsley.

"Yes" he lied; it wouldn't help any of them to know that they had been tortured before they were killed.

"Now Harry, I need you to drink this dear, Dumbledore's orders". Mrs Weasley lifted a small silver smoking goblet to Harry's lips. "It's a sleeping draught you've had one before. You need to sleep now ready for the morning, it's going to be a busy day".

Harry drank the smoking potion and felt his head go numb; his whole body felt as light as a feather as he drifted off in to a dreamless sleep.

"Wakey, wakey, rise and shine" Mrs Weasley called trying to sound cheerful as she flung back the tattered navy blue velvet curtains flooding Harry and Ron's bedroom with light. Harry opened his eyes to see Mrs Weasley trying to tug Ron's bedcovers down from over his head. Only a mop of red hair could be seen at the top of them for a second but then Mrs Weasley won the battle and Ron appeared, sprawled diagonally across his bed in pyjama bottoms two inches too short so his ankles were exposed, shielding his eyes from the light. "Oh mum!" 

Harry jumped as he suddenly say movement on the right side of his bed out of the corner of his eye. He rolled over and looked over the side of the bed to see Remus Lupin curled up in a tangle of blankets on a rusty old camp bed.

"Morning Harry" he yawned, "time for breakfast yet?"

"What are you doing in here?" Harry smiled; then he remembered and sank back on to his pillow, his stomach doing somersaults.

"Harry ... you okay?" Lupin asked, the bed creaking as he sat up.

"Yeah ... just ... I'm okay" he replied.

"Time to get up then, get your clothes on and come down for breakfast. Dumbledore will be here to pick you all up in an hour and a half and I don't want to keep him waiting" Mrs Weasley called as she went through the wardrobe and the chest of drawers making sure they were all empty. "I've hung up some clean robes for you Remus in your room".

"Thanks Molly but I think I'll just have ten minutes more sleep" Lupin yawned and went to lie back down but as he did the metal leg at the bottom of the camp bed gave way and he rolled out across the floor. "Maybe not then" he smiled as Ron and Harry laughed.

An hour later they were all sat in the kitchen waiting for Professor Dumbledore to arrive. The school trunks were all piled in the hallway with Hedwig and Pig's cages on top, they had finished breakfast and Crookshanks was sprawled across Harry's knees purring; which was quite a feat in itself as he was roughly the size of a full-grown Beagle now. But Harry did not mind, the atmosphere was a bit strained as the others forced conversations about anything and everything except what had happened in there last night. When Harry had come in to the kitchen he had caught a glimpse of the front page of the Daily Prophet showing a picture of Cornelius Fudge under a large bold caption saying 'Ministry Mayhem as Minister Murdered' but Harry couldn't read anymore as Mrs Weasley spotted him looking at the newspaper and quickly removed it and placed it in a draw by the sink. Them not asking did not really bother Harry as he didn't want to talk about it yet anyway, but all the same he would have liked to have known what was going on. He thought of asking but decided not to in case they started questioning him.

Harry looked up at the clock; it was nearly time to leave. He had hoped that Dumbledore might have come early so that he could talk to him about last night but it didn't seem as if that was going to happen now. In a way he was sad that he was leaving Sirius' house because it reminded him of him so much. But at the same time he was kind of glad that he was leaving. It may remind him of Sirius but Sirius wasn't happy here; there were more sad memories than happy ones in this house. As Harry sat thinking about all that had happened last summer he suddenly remembered something and jumped up out of his chair so fast all the others spun round thinking that he had was about to pass out again and they would be facing Voldemort.

"I've just got to go and do something ... I'll meet you all in the hallway".

"Harry dear I don't think there's enough..." but Mrs Weasley didn't bother to finish her sentence as Harry had already raced out of the kitchen.

Ten minutes later the doorbell rang and everyone piled into the hall. Harry came out of the study to join them as Mrs Weasley was bellowing at the twins. There was chaos as everyone started grabbling coats and cages and Mrs Weasley and Lupin tried to quieten down the screaming portrait of Mrs Black. "Fred I am not gonna tell you again, stop pressing the doorbell! It's not funny! Why can't you just come in like everybody else" Mrs Weasley shouted over the din.

Harry turned to look back at the study and smiled, he felt better than he had in a long while. Turning back round again he sighed and looked at everyone rushing around him hauling trunks and bags towards the front door, then caught sight of Mrs Weasley looking at him curiously. He smiled at her then went and picked up Hedwig who was flapping her snow-white wings vehemently in her cage, clearly agitated by all the commotion around her. With his other hand gripping the end handle of his trunk, he took a final look around the hall. The stuffed house elf heads on plaques; the Black family portraits hung crooked on the walls; the umbrella stand that looked suspiciously like a severed troll's leg; the old fashioned gas lamps and the now cobweb-free chandelier in the middle of the winding staircase that Harry had last hung over when he was watching Professor Dumbledore and Mr Weasley rush of the Azkaban. It was definitely time to go; holding Hedwig's cage in front of him and dragging his trunk behind so that he could make his way down the narrow hallway, Harry made his way to the front door of Number twelve Grimmauld Place.

As he stepped out on to the pavement he put down his trunk on the top step behind him and lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. It was so much brighter out here than in the house and Harry welcomed the warm breeze and summer smells that greeted him, instead of the stale air of the house. No matter how much Mrs Weasley had cleaned she hadn't been able to get rid of it. Now that his eyes had adjusted he saw three shiny black Rolls Royce's waiting at the end of the Square; the Ministry of Magic flags flapping in the breeze as the drivers waited to load up their passengers.

"What they doing parking all the way down there!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed coming out of the door behind Harry, pulling her coat on.

"Security Molly" Tonks replied "Dumbledore didn't want them right outside the house. Hiya Harry, give us your trunk; you're in the middle car". Harry moved out of the way as Tonks stepped up to retrieve his trunk. Fred and George were already walking down the road helping Hermione and Ginny take their things to the cars. Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked round to see Lupin smiling at him "All ready then?" he asked.

Harry took one last look at the house that was shrinking between its two neighbours then clutching Hedwig made his way towards the cars, flanked by Lupin, Tonks, Mrs Weasley and two black robed wizards that he assumed were aurors. All of them, he noticed, had a hand in their robes clutching their wand.

As they neared the cars he saw Moody at the door of the front one chatting to the driver while his magical eye darted around checking their surroundings. A second later Rons red head appeared out of the door followed by his body "This is great! Dunno why we need three though".

"Right" called Mrs Weasley trying to organise everyone as the drivers loaded the last of the trunks in to the cars. "Ron, Fred, George your in the front with Remus; Ginny, Hermione in the last one with me and Tonks and Harry you go with Alastor in the middle".

"Why can't Harry come with us?" Ron said grumpily.

"Because he's not" his mother snapped "now get in or we'll be late!"

As they all piled in, Moody waited; checking the other car doors were closed before he climbed in awkwardly behind Harry. As soon as Harry had climbed in he gasped in surprise at the unexpected occupant already sat in the car. The windows were blackened on the outside so he hadn't seen that there was already someone in there. Sat calmly in long, flowing bright purple robes with matching purple wizards hat was Professor Dumbledore, gazing in to what looked like a crystal ball.

"Sit down then Harry" he said looking up at him over his half moon purple spectacles and lowering the glass ball on to his lap.

As Moody lowered himself in to the seat next to Harry, the cars started to move.

"How are you feeling now?" Dumbledore asked gently.

"I'm okay," Harry answered hesitantly. Harry went to look down at the glass ball on Dumbledore's lap but he slipped it into his pocket.

"Now Harry, I've asked you to come in here on your own because it might be the last chance we get to speak freely before term starts. You are going to be very busy this year ... we both will be, especially after last night". Harry looked down at his feet not wanting to remember.

"I think it is important that your occlumency lessons resume immediately and I realise that you didn't get on so well last time but I think it would be best if Professor Snape continued to teach you for the time being as I am going to be very busy." A loud snort came from the other corner of the car and Harry turned to face Moody but he didn't add anything else.

"Harry" Dumbledore continued, drawing Harry's attention back to him "I also think it would be wise if you didn't tell anyone else in school about what happened to you. People are already nervous about what's happening with Lord Voldemort and panic easily. And they are always afraid of things that they do not understand. The others are also being told not to talk about it in school".

"Professor ... last night..." Harry started warily "I couldn't do anything ... I couldn't stop it because I didn't know it was happening ... all the other times I saw things I was asleep. What if it happens again?"

"That's why we need to start your occlumency lessons again immediately".

"But it was different, how will they help!" Harry persisted.

"They WILL help, you must trust me Harry. You need to be extra careful in school too Harry; no wandering around on your own in the grounds even with your father's cloak; and be careful around other people too students and adults. Carry your mirror, if your ever unsure or nervous use it. What happened at the Ministry is just the start".

"Sir, this morning in the kitchen" Harry paused deciding how to ask. "There was a copy of The Daily Prophet. I saw the front page and the picture of Mr Fudge but Mrs Weasley saw me looking and put it away. I mean ... what is happening at the Ministry?"

Dumbledore gazed at Harry for a few seconds as if deciding whether to tell him or not.

"Ah Molly" he sighed "she cares a great deal about you, you know Harry but she still thinks of you as a child even though you are a young man. Cornelius' death has been a great shock for everyone ... especially as it was inside the Ministry itself. After your last 'encounter' in the Department of Mysteries security had been tightened and they are still investigating how it happened and how it was exactly who committed such an appalling act".

"Inside job in my opinion" Moody jumped in "but I'll find them and they'll pay for Kingsley ... he was a good man and not even a mention in the paper".

"We can't be certain it was an insider Alastor, there is no proof and you cannot go around accusing people; especially with your history. We have already discussed this" Dumbledore replied.

"Well we will see ... but it just goes to show Harry ... trust no one, even people close to you cos that's how they get you sometimes ... they make you think they're your friend and then they curse you in the back when you least expect it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

"Well I don't think Harry's in any immediate danger from Miss Granger or Mr Weasley do you Alastor?" Dumbledore chuckled quietly. "Anyway, as I was saying ... it has been a great shock to everyone".

"Who is in charge now then?" Harry asked.

"Amelia Bones is acting as Minister for the moment until all parties have agreed to make it permanent. She was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Percy Weasley is helping her as much as he can".

"Or as much as she'll let him!" Moody laughed, his scarred face contorting into a funny shape.

Harry nodded as he remembered her from his disciplinary hearing last August when she asked about his Patronus.

"Which brings us to why we are here now" Dumbledore continued. "Like it or not Harry your life is in constant danger from now on, but alas, you are not the only one. Extra measures are being taken this year to ensure student safety while you are all in my care. So we have placed aurors around the train station and a certain number of them will be joining you all on the train journey back to Hogwarts as well as the teachers and myself".

"But they wouldn't attack a train full of students surely" Harry half shouted shocked that he hadn't thought about it before; after all the death eaters had attacked Ron, Hermione and Neville and the rest when they went to 'rescue' Sirius.

"It is better to be safe Harry" Dumbledore continued "People are nervous about what is happening in the wizarding world and not everyone is keen on sending their children away from home but we cannot be certain how long this threat will be among us so we must continue to train you all how to protect yourselves and while you are in my care I will do my best to look after you".o:p/o:p

Harry gazed out of the car window, deep in thought but not for long as he noticed all the buildings pass by slower as the car was coming to a stop outside Kings Cross Station. The journey had passed quickly while they had been talking and they were soon out of the cars and unloading all their trunks. It only took a matter of minutes, however, and then grouped together and encircled by the aurors, Lupin, Dumbledore, Tonks and Mrs Wealsey, they were ushered through the station to the wall that separated platforms one and two.o:p/o:p

"Extra security measure" Tonks whispered to Harry, Ron and Hermione seeing them look surprised at their surroundings.o:p/o:p

"Right Harry you come through first with Alastor and myself, the others will follow" Dumbledore said quietly as he adjusted the long black trench coat that he had put on over his robes before he had left the car. Gripping Hedwigs cage tightly while Moody pushed his trunk on a trolley, all three strode quickly towards the wall and disappeared through it, emerging on a large crowded platform on the other side; the large red Hogwarts Express stood next to it proudly puffing steam up in to the air. o:p/o:p

Harry gazed around as he noted the difference in the platform from the old one. There was nothing on either side of the large stone platform, just clear green fields; and nothing on the platform itself except a few scattered metal benches along its length.o:p/o:p

"No place to hide!" Moody told Harry seeing him looking around at the minimal surroundings.o:p/o:p

o:p/o:p

Harry was just walking forwards towards the train when Fred, George and Ron rushed up behind them.o:p/o:p

"Not as nice as the old one is it!" said Ron gazing round.o:p/o:p

"Na, but look on the bright side, it's much easier to push people off!" said Fred as he peered over the edge. Harry grinned as he noticed Ron speed forward quickly putting himself between Harry and Moody. He also noticed a lot of worried looking witches and wizards keeping a hand on their child and gazing around. Though a few did manage a meek smile when they saw Dumbledore striding towards them up the platform. o:p/o:p

"Right, in you go get a compartment all together" Dumbledore said as Ginny and Hermione joined them by the train. o:p/o:p

"But the prefects have to..." Hermione started but stopped as Dumbledore raised his hand.o:p/o:p

"We are foregoing that tradition this year, you will be given your instructions by your head of house once we have reached Hogwarts. Now I suggest you find yourself a compartment and get yourselves settled".o:p/o:p

"Wish we were coming with you" said George sullenly.o:p/o:p

"Yeah" agreed Fred.o:p/o:p

"What!" exclaimed Mrs Weasley from behind the girls. "You've spent years moaning about school, didn't work properly when you were there and now after you flew out of the place mid-term and didn't finish your NEWTs you're saying you want to go back?!"o:p/o:p

"We had a lot of fun there" Fred replied defensively.o:p/o:p

"You were supposed to be there to learn, not BLOW things UP!" Mrs Weasley went to continue but Professor Dumbledore interrupted. "What you are doing now is just as important ... now Molly" he said as Mrs Weasley tutted her disapproval. "People still need to laugh, now more than ever. If you forget the pleasures in life then what do you have to fight for; don't you ever forget that ... and if you should find yourselves in the vicinity of Hogwarts in the near future then you are most welcome to drop in. Just try and avoid Mr Filch!" he smiled at the twins with a twinkle in his bright blue eyes. o:p/o:p

"Right and it really is nearly time for the train to go so you'd better all get in now" Lupin called over everyone's heads. At this Mrs Weasley went into a frenzy hugging everyone and handing out sandwiches wrapped in cling film. o:p/o:p

"You take care of yourself Harry dear, you know where I am if you need me" she said gently trying to pat down his hair before she swept over to Ginny.o:p/o:p

"Bye" Harry called to Lupin, Fred and George as he clambered on to the train with Hedwig's cage in one hand while Ron helped him push up his trunk into the carriage then followed with his own. o:p/o:p

Students were already racing up and down the carriages between the compartments and there was a pretty tricky situation for Harry and Ron when they had to squeeze past Professor Sprout in the corridor of the first carriage because there were no empty compartments. But in the first one they tried in the second carriage they found Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood sitting on their own looking at holiday photographs. As Harry and Ron piled in, Hermione and Ginny (who had managed to extract herself from Mrs Weasley) came in behind them and flopped in to the seats opposite Neville and Luna. Harry placed Hedwig on the seat by the window and then opened it so that he could look out. o:p/o:p

All the students were on the train now and he could see Mrs Weasley and Lupin talking to Dumbledore who was stood by the door to their carriage. A huge rush of hissing steam came from the engine at the front of the train and Dumbledore stepped up in to the carriage. Harry could just make out Lupin shouting 'see you soon', when the train started moving slowly out of the station. As Harry watched from his window Mrs Weasley, Lupin and the twins disapparated from the platform.o:p/o:p

"What are you doing Harry!" Hermione suddenly screeched, "Get your head back in the window!" He sighed to himself and came back and sat next to Ron. o:p/o:p

o:p/o:p

What he didn't know was that as he was settling down in the compartment and looking at Luna's holiday photographs with the others, Mrs Weasley and Lupin arrived back at twelve Grimmauld Place and went straight in to the study to see what Harry had rushed off to do that had cheered him up so much before they left. o:p/o:p

At first glance they didn't see anything but it was Mrs Weasley that then spotted the bright gold lettering. She had tears running down her face as she called Remus over to look at the Black Family tapestry. In new bright gold thread Sirius' name now shone out brighter than any of the others, and a small gold vertical line linked another name beneath his – Harry Potter. o:p/o:p

Harry listened as Luna told them all about her unsuccessful Crumple Horned Snorkack hunt in Sweden while she gazed blankly at the photographs strewn about the seat around her.

"… Father wasn't disappointed though as he found a rather rare species of fire beetle in our first week and then we saw Mr Fudge meeting Lucius Malfoy in an inn on the edge of the town we were staying in". Ron promptly stopped his examination of Neville's latest pot plant.

"Naturally we reported it knowing Mr Malfoy was supposed to be in prison, even sent a photograph but nothing happened. Dad had an owl back saying it wasn't them but it was. And of course then Dad read in the Daily Prophet that they'd all escaped. He's got reporters investigating it now to see if Mr Fudge's death was faked and he's run off with the death eaters.

"What?" Harry had been gazing out of the window at that point having grown sleepy listening to Luna's slow monotone voice but his attention also came sharply back at her mention of Lucius Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge's death.

"That, that … MURDER … was NOT faked! And what about Kingsley? Has he run off and joined Voldemort too? They're dead Luna, DEAD! You tell your father that not everything is a Government conspiracy!"

"Harry calm down" Hermione said glancing towards the door in case any teachers came to investigate the shouting. Harry glared at Luna but she merely raised her eyebrows slightly making her eyes look twice as large and vacant, then turned away and started re-examining her photo's upside down.

"Makes you wonder though, doesn't it" Ginny added thoughtfully from the corner, still reading her copy of last weeks Witch Weekly and ignoring Harry's outburst. "Why was Fudge meeting Malfoy in the first place and why didn't he bring him back to the Ministry?"

"Hmm" Hermione sat curling a strand of hair around her finger as she sat deep in thought trying to think of a logical explanation for Fudge's actions.

"You heard Luna" Harry replied sarcastically "The photograph showed it wasn't them".

"Oh it was, I'm sure" Luna added dreamily "I remember Mr Malfoy from the Ministry room when he attacked us".

"I'm not arguing this anymore, I'm going for a walk" and Harry flung open the compartment door and stalked off towards the third carriage before anyone could stop him.

A couple of people tried to talk to him as he passed but he was so angry he just kept on going. Why did no one understand? To be fair they hadn't seen anything like he had seen, he thought to himself, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to make stupid assumptions if they had. First he'd had to listen to his mother's screams, he'd watched Cedric murdered in front of him, then he'd had to watch Mr Weasley being attacked like it was him doing it himself and now Fudge and Kingsley. It wasn't fake it was real; he knew it was real. He felt the pleasure and excitement as he'd watched them beg and cry in pain. He still felt the same anger and disgust at having been violated again. It was just so frustrating that no one understood and that he couldn't tell them. How did he know for sure that his thoughts were his own, that he wasn't really thinking and doing what Voldemort wanted him to do. Was that why Dumbledore was having Snape teach him Occlumency again?

He stopped in the empty corridor and gazed out the window watching trees, fields and cows fly by. Why was all this happening to him, what had he done to deserve the life he had? He wanted to be normal like everyone else, whatever normal was.

o:p/o:p

"You girl!" a familiar voice boomed at the other end of the corridor. "What are you doing running up and down the corridors? You haven't even started school yet and your already breaking rules". Harry turned to follow Snape's voice and sure enough the tall, greasy black-haired potions master was towering menacingly over a quivering first year with curly brown hair and amazingly bright blue eyes that Harry could see clearly from a distance.

"I …" she started but didn't finish as Snape continued his tirade. Harry felt sorry for her as he realised she'd only just stepped out of her compartment; but not sorry enough to hang around and wait for Snape to spot him. He turned back down the train passing a few aurors and Flitwick on the way but they didn't stop him. He was just about to re-enter his compartment to join the others when a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him round and he came face to face with Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson and Crabbe and Goyle.

o:p/o:p

"Well look who it is, tell me Potter. What's it like to know you got the only sad person who wanted you killed because you couldn't do what you were told?" But Harry didn't get a chance to raise his wand as a bolt of blue light shot over Harry's shoulder, hitting Malfoy square in the chest lifting him clear off his feet and sending him flying backwards in to Goyle. Harry spun round to see Ginny coming out of the compartment with her wand still raised closely followed by Hermione and Ron, both looking absolutely furious.

"Don't tell me they let YOU back in?" Ron said scathingly looking at Draco as Pansy helped him up.

"I'm surprised you still hang around with him" Pansy said looking at Hermione and Ginny but gesturing to Harry "just look at what happened to poor Cedric!"

"But then he needs them Pansy" Draco added brushing his robes straight and checking his hair "After all, all the 'famous' stuff he's done he's not done on his own has he. It took six of you to get to the Department of Mysteries and one person to die instead of you as well. Not that we're bothered mind, Sirius always was a disappointment to the family!"

Harry lunged forward not even bothering with his wand this time and knocked Malfoy backwards again. Ginny, Ron and Neville had piled in after Harry and they were a heap of flailing arms and legs as a loud voice filled the carriage.

"STOP THAT AT ONCE!!!" Mr Longbottom kindly remove your arm from Mr Crabbe's neck and Miss Weasley let go off Miss Parkinson's hair". They all disentangled themselves and stood back to face an extremely annoyed Professor Mcgonagall in her tartan dress robes; with a mass of student heads peering around the corners of the other compartment doors to see what all the commotion was.

"You're not even back at school yet and your already tearing strips of one another and THREE of you are prefects as well. This behaviour WILL NOT be tolerated am I making myself clear?"

"But Professor…" Hermione started to try and explain what had happened but was cut short.

"No Miss Granger, I don't wish to hear it. You may not have been taking part but you also made NO effort to try and break it up; I'd have thought you better than that. I have enough problems to deal with at the moment without having to sort out your little squabbles. You are Sixth years now and it is about time you started to act like it. Now GO back to your compartments immediately!!"

Harry gave Malfoy one final glare and turned to follow all the others back in to the compartment, slamming the door shut behind him.

"I can't believe Dumbledore let him come back to school after what his father has done" Harry started immediately as they all sat down.

"Well you know what he's like for giving second chances" replied Hermione "and besides you can't really judge one person by what his families like – just look at Sirius".

"Did you hear what he said Hermione?" Ron answered disbelievingly.

"Malfoy is not Sirius!" bellowed Harry.

"Harry calm down" Ginny hissed. "Stop shouting at us all the time, WE haven't done anything wrong".

"All I meant" Hermione added hesitantly "was that Dumbledore must have his reasons for letting Malfoy back and that could be one of them".

"Why are you sticking up for him again" Ron eyed Hermione warily.

"I'm not! Don't start that again Ron. What he said about Sirius was horrible".

"Yeah well, you just remember that" Ron answered turning to Neville. "So what happened to you over the summer Neville? You been having wrestling lessons?"

"Uh, no" said Neville going bright pink "I went to help Ginny with Pansy but Pansy kicked me and I fell backwards … I sort of grabbed at Crabbe to stop myself falling".

o:p/o:p

o:p/o:p

The journey flew by after that. The sweet trolley came and went and they all took it in turns watching the teachers walking up and down through the compartment door as they looked for somebody new who would be their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. But nobody new passed and after half an hour Neville worryingly concluded that Snape must finally have gotten the job and then sat fretting in the corner. It was only when Ginny asked him if he was all right that they found out why this was bothering him so much. Defence Against the Dark Arts was one of the NEWTs he'd chosen having gotten an O in his exam, and he had dropped Potions so that he could get away from Professor Snape. Snape was the one person in Neville's whole world that filled him with as much fear as his Grandmother did (though she had been a bit nicer to him since he passed his OWLs. He may only have got two Os an E and the A's for the rest but he was pleased with himself. Especially for passing Potions.

o:p/o:p

At the end of their fifth game of Exploding Snap they changes into their school robes. Harry looked out of the compartment window to see the familiar sight of mountains and forests and felt the train start to slow down as a wooden sign saying 'Welcome to Hogsmede' swung in the night breeze as the train passed and they entered Hogsmede station. Gathering all their belongings back together and struggling once again to squeeze down the corridor with trunks and cages, they all stepped out in to the cold night air on a tiny dark platform.

"Firs'-years over here! Follow me" Hagrid's voice boomed from the other end of the platform as he gathered all the first year students together for their traditional trip across the lake to Hogwarts castle.

"So far, so good" said Ron looking at all the new faces that were gathering around Hagrid.

"What?" Harry asked curiously.

"No sign of anymore Creeveys!" Ron grinned.

Harry smiled as he struggled through the crowded platform trying to keep up with Ron as they made their way out of the station. Aurors were positioned every few meters up and down the platform and the teachers hastily escorted groups of students past the station gates and in to the waiting carriages.

"Hey look" called Ginny from somewhere in front of Harry "isn't that Bill down by the end of the train?"

They all turned to look and sure enough Bill Weasley was stood by the last train carriage helping a first year student get her trunk down the steps of the train.

"What's he doing here?" Ron called over everyone else's heads as Harry jumped up and down to try and get a better view (which Hedwig didn't appreciate very much!). Sometimes he envied Ron's height but he never told him because he was a bit touchy about it.

They didn't even get a chance to go and see Bill, however, as Professor Mcgonagall came up behind them and steered them towards the nearest carriage. Ron had his head turned to try and look for Bill as they approached it and Harry only just managed to shout 'Ron!' before Ron walked straight in to, and bounced off, the waiting Thestral.

"Ouch!" he said rubbing his head "Ruddy things should have hazard lights or something!"

Passing the now agitated Thestral carefully, Harry loaded Hedwig in remembering the last time he had ridden one and was certain it would not be an experience he was going to willingly repeat again. He climbed in as Neville and Luna got in to the next carriage with Seamus and Dean. He had only just sat down when Mcgonagall slammed the door and the carriage lurched forward. It appeared that this year instead of the carriages leaving all together they were going one by one at top speed to get the students quickly up to the castle.

As they banged in to each other and Ron clung furiously to Pig's cage in case she fell, Harry wedged Hedwig between himself and the side of the carriage and took in great gulps of air from the window to try and steady his stomach. It was only a matter of minutes however before the statues of the winged boars that guarded the gates of Hogwarts flew past and the rickety carriage made its way up the sweeping driveway with Hogwarts many lighted windows shining brightly in to the night and the many turrets and towers silhouetted against the full moon.

The carriage screeched to a halt at a flight of stone steps and the door swung open. Harry and Ron were just heaving Ginny's trunk down the steps when another carriage slammed to a halt a meter behind theirs and they heard a loud bang followed by Neville's unmistakable cry of pain. As they closed the door to their empty carriage, it raced immediately back down the driveway leaving a cloud of dust to rise up in to the night air. The door to the other carriage shot open and Neville staggered out looking very green with a large red bump on his forehead.

o:p/o:p

They all made their way up the stone steps and through the large oak doors in to the huge, torch-lit Entrance Hall to find the Bloody baron angrily chasing Peeves away from a group of four aurors who were covered from head to toe in something green, smelly and sticky. They left their trunks and cages at the bottom of the marble staircase and made their way to the Great Hall for the start of term feast. Harry sat down on the Gryffindor table by Neville and Ron and as more students piled in to the Hall, Harry looked up at the clear night sky and sighed; he was home.

More students filed in chatting and took their places at the four long wooden house tables while the staff took their places at the fifth table that faced the students. Golden plates and goblets lay perfectly placed up and down the tables while hundreds and hundreds of candles lit the hall, floating in mid-air. Harry was looking up at these when he noticed how quiet the room had become and looked down to see Professor Mcgonagall striding up the middle of the hall carrying a small wooden stool and a tatty old wizards hat, followed closely by a crowd of small, shaking first years. Harry noticed one girl in particular looking up in the air open-mouthed just as he had done when he first came in to the Great Hall. She was the same girl Snape had shouted at on the train and as Harry watched her she looked down and smiled nervously at him.

Professor Mcgonagall had reached the teachers table now and she placed the stool down in front of it and placed the hat on top. Everyone stared silently at it for a moment and then it broke in to song:

o:p/o:p

**There were four founders wise and fair,o:p/o:p**

**Who came together because they dared;o:p/o:p**

**To challenge foreign magic folk together,o:p/o:p**

**And teach their skills to their young forever.o:p/o:p**

** o:p/o:p**

**Among these vast mysterious grounds,o:p/o:p**

**This magic school they all did found;o:p/o:p**

**To teach young wizards how to face,o:p/o:p**

**The tests and temptations of their race.o:p/o:p**

** o:p/o:p**

**Four houses then they all did make up,o:p/o:p**

**And brought in students who, with luck,o:p/o:p**

**Would join each house with certain traits,**

**And move together towards their fates.o:p/o:p**

** o:p/o:p**

**Gryffindor students are bold and strong,o:p/o:p**

**Courageous, brave and hardly wrong;o:p/o:p**

**Hufflepuffs are loyal and true,o:p/o:p**

**Whilst Ravenclaws are wise and shrewd.o:p/o:p**

** o:p/o:p**

**Slytherins are all cunning and dare,o:p/o:p**

**To follow their ambitions and do not care;o:p/o:p**

**They are strong and proud and do not cower,o:p/o:p**

**As they strive ever forward in their quest for power.o:p/o:p**

** o:p/o:p**

**As shadow looms over this school,o:p/o:p**

**The Dark Lord looks to stand and rule;o:p/o:p**

**Over all that stands for just and right,o:p/o:p**

**But we must fight back with all our might.o:p/o:p**

** o:p/o:p**

**The time has come for you all to unite,o:p/o:p**

**To face the struggle and stand and FIGHT!!!!!!!!!**Instead of the usual round of applause, everyone sat in silence shocked at the ferocity that the hat had shouted out the last line of the song. To break the silence Professor Mcgonagall moved up and stood next to the stool and unrolled a large scroll of parchment.

"When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool," she told the first-years. "When the hat announces your house, you will kindly go and sit at the appropriate table".

"Aversham, Selene!"

A small, blond-haired girl with grey eyes picked up the sorting hat, sat down on the stool and placed it on her head.

"Ravenclaw!" the hat roared immediately and everyone applauded while Selene made her way shakily to the Ravenclaw table.

"Hey look!" said Ron quietly as Louis Bennett was being sorted in to Hufflepuff, "what's Bill doing with Hagrid?"

Harry, Hermione and Ginny quickly scanned the teacher's table.

"Probably just came to help get everyone to the castle safely and stayed for the feast" said Ginny.

"Well why didn't mum say he was helping?" Ron replied still watching his brother who turned to see him and grinned.

"Diggle, Amelia!" Professor Mcgonagall called.

Hermione continued staring up and down the teacher's table. "No he couldn't be … but …"

"Hermione stop muttering and spit it out!" Ron hissed.

"Well … there's no new teacher!" she said quietly as the hat was deciding where to place Amelia Diggle. "Gryffindor!" it roared and they all clapped as they continued to watch Bill and Hagrid whispering, smiling and pointing at them.

"Evans, Mark!" Harry's head spun back to see the dark-haired boy walking towards the stool. It was him; the same boy from Little Whining that Dudley beat up because he stood up to him.

"Harry, you okay?" Hermione asked.

"Gryffindor!"

"That boy lives by my aunt and uncle!"

"Well he must have muggle parents like me then because there aren't supposed to be any witches or wizards living in your area".

"Exactly!" he mumbled quietly wishing that Mark Evans had come and sat a bit closer not half way down the table so that he could have talked to him.

"Finnegan, Gabby!" Mcgonagall called and the girl Harry had first seen on the train stumbled forward and placed the hat over her curls with her bright blue eyes gazing nervously around the room as everyone watched her.

"Gryffindor!" it bellowed and she leapt up from the stool, dropped that hat and raced over to the Gryffindor table with a huge smile on her face and sat next to Mark. A few places down Seamus was jumping up and down in his seat clapping and Harry realised the family resemblance. "Hey Seamus! You never said you had a sister".

The sorting continued as Seamus and Dean filled them in on what OWLs they had gotten and what they'd done over the summer; and finally after Yardley, Andrea was sorted in to Slytherin, Professor Mcgonagall picked up the sorting hat and stool and took her place at the teacher's table next to Professor Sprout.

"Great I'm starving!" said Ron rubbing his hands together happily.

"When aren't you" Hermione replied sarcastically but smiling too.

o:p/o:p

Professor Dumbledore rose from his chair and smiled at the now silent students.

"I realise you must all be hungry after your journey but I have a number of announcements I would like to make first". Ron groaned.

"Firstly, as you all may have noticed there will be a few aurors placed at the entrances to the school as added protection. NO ONE is to leave the school grounds or stray in to or near the Forbidden Forest". With this he looked pointedly at Ron and Harry. "This year we will also be introducing a new curfew for everyone. You are not to be out of your common room after 8 O'clock at night unless you are accompanied by a teacher. This applies to sixth years also" and again he made a point of looking at Ron and Harry.

"Now at this point I would like to take a moment to reflect on everything that has happened these past few months and to extend my deepest sympathies to the families that have been victims to one wizard's callous pursuit of power. An attack on one family, is an attack on us all and my deepest condolences go to the Brown family, the Finch-Fletchley family, the Ackerley family, the Dobb's family …"

"Why, what happened to Lavender and Justin?" Harry whispered quietly to Ron as he looked up and down the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables trying to spot them. Ron just looked back at him "Well … they were attacked Harry. It was in the Daily Prophet. Death Eaters got them in the middle of the night. Lavender was at Parvarti's though luckily. Her mum is in St Mungo's, pretty bad by the sound of it, and her dad died. Doesn't look like she's come back to school yet though".

"What about Justin?"

"Well … he's dead Harry; him and his parents. I'm sorry Harry I thought you knew!" Ron looked down at his empty plate glumly while Harry checked the Hufflepuff table again just to be sure. He had read about attacks over the summer but didn't remember seeing any names; his first thought then had been that Hermione was all right.

"It is imperative …" Dumbledore continued gazing at each of the tables in turn "that you all work extra hard this year and that you be vigilant to all that happens around you. Look around you now; you are all in the same position and you all have choices to make. Look after each other and not just yourselves".

Harry followed Dumbledores' gaze over to the Slytherin table to find Draco glaring right at him. He held his stare for a few moments and then turned back to Dumbledore.

"Now for some good news! Due to Professor Umbridge's … departure" cheers went up all round the Hall at which some of the first-years looked a bit worried, "I would like to introduce one of your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, Professor Weasley!" At this Bill stood up and waved at the students as Ron's jaw dropped and Ginny, Harry and Hagrid cheered heartily with the rest of the students.

"I knew it!" declared Hermione happily.

Dumbledore smiled at a shocked Ron then continued as Bill sat down, "your other teacher hasn't arrived yet but I'm sure you'll make them both most welcome. Now some of you may be wondering why we will be having two teachers for the same subject. Well this is because it has been decided this year that all students will be having extra defence lessons; including sixth years who haven't chosen this subject as a NEWT. Professor Weasley has a very strong background in curses should you wish to ask him any questions and comes highly recommended. Well I think that is enough for now; it's time to eat" and with this he swept his wand hand forward and all the golden plate in the middle of the table filed with food and the first-years gasped. Chicken legs were piled high next to roast potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and gravy and mashed potato.

"About time" Ron said glumly.

"What's up with you know" Hermione asked him exasperated "I thought you were hungry?"

"I am, but would you want your brother teaching you your favourite subject? If I get something wrong I'll never hear the end of it". Ginny didn't look too happy either.

"Oh Ron grow up!" Hermione replied, "It'll be fun having Bill here; and besides he's not going to be the only one teaching us is he!"

"Hmm, we'll see" Ron answered still not convinced but helping himself to mounds of mashed potato.

Harry grinned; Ron had always been overshadowed by his brothers but obviously Ron's misery didn't stretch to quashing his appetite. And it would be fun having Bill teach them especially after the last few teachers they'd had. Though that still left the mystery of the other Professor because Professor Dumbledore hadn't said who it was.

After an hour of discussing it and Neville still being convinced he was going to be confronted with professor Snape again; they all made their way back to their dormitories to get ready for bed.

As Harry lay in his four-poster with the curtains slightly open so he could look out at the window at the night sky, Hedwig flew on to the ledge and hooted to him then took off again. Harry smiled to himself as he looked out at the stars; he was home.


	8. Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari...

****

Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari

Chapter Eight

The Good and the Ugly

Harry woke up early the next morning and pulled the drapes around his bed back so that he could look out at the sky. Neville snored loudly but all the other boys in Harry's dormitory slept on.

Harry got up and pulled on his dressing gown and went and sat on the stone window ledge next to his bed. He looked out over the school grounds, relieved to see that nothing had changed. Smoke was rising out of the chimney of Hagrid's hut; the water in the lake rippled as the giant squid swam along on his back and every now and then a flock of birds would shoot up out of the trees squawking before flying off to settle in another part of the Forbidden Forrest.

As Harry looked back to Hagrid's hut, movement caught his attention on the edge of the forest. Professor Dumbledore emerged wrapped in a large dark blue robe and wizards hat. He made his way quickly up the side of the forest and disappeared from Harry's view up towards the school entrance hall. Harry looked back towards the forest to see if he could spot any other movement but the only thing that caught his eye were the four Hogwarts house flags, flapping in the breeze on top of the stands of the Quidditch pitch. 'Quidditch' Harry suddenly thought to himself happily and, grabbing some parchment and a quill he crept out of the dormitory and made his way down to the Gryffindor common room.

An hour later Harry stood in front of the notice board admiring his handiwork as Ron came down from their dormitory.

"What do you think?" Harry asked eagerly pointing to the notice board.

"That's great" Ron replied reading Harry's notice about Quidditch tryouts. "I love the broomsticks but why the owl?" Ron asked; his eyes following the miniature Firebolts that were shooting all over the page.

"That's a snitch!" Harry responded indignantly "I spent ages on that!"

"Of course it's a snitch Harry" said Hermione appearing behind them. "He's winding you up; ignore him. When are the tryouts" she asked trying to peer round Ron to get a better look but he was deliberately blocking her view.

"Why your not thinking of trying out are you?" he laughed.

Hermione glared back at him "and so what if I did tryout?, at least I can catch a ball!"

"Tonight!" Harry jumped in quickly seeing the furious look on Ron's face. "I figured the sooner we start the better; I've got a training schedule worked out and everything … look". Harry pulled out a large piece of parchment that he had spent the last two hours working on. It had quid ditch practices scheduled for the next three months and what they would be doing in each practise.

"That is incredibly complex Harry" Hermione replied obviously impressed and forgetting her argument with Ron. "There's just one thing though".

"What?" Harry asked cautiously.

"You haven't left yourself anytime for normal classes!"

Half an hour later Harry, Hermione and Ron were sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast as Professor Mcgonagall handed out timetables.

"See even if you put all your practises after lessons there still isn't enough time to fit them all in; unless everyone just stops sleeping. But even then I doubt Professor Dumbledore will let you all out to play in the dark!"

"Ha ha very funny" Ron replied sarcastically as Harry gazed absently up the Gryffindor table.

"Well I'm sorry but if you both stuck half as much effort in to your school work as you do Quidditch, then you could do anything you wanted when we finish school".

"Change the record Hermione, can't you find anything new to nag us about?!"

"Back in a minute" Harry interrupted before disappearing down the other end of the table for a few moments then coming back and continuing to eat his scrambled eggs.

"Well?" asked Ron "what was that about?"

"Just telling Sloper and Kirke we need them for the try outs tonight - might as well do it with the whole team … hang on where's Ginny?"

"I GIVE UP!" Hermione exclaimed clamping her hands over her head in disbelief as Harry; completely oblivious, continued searching the Hall for Ginny.

"Hey Harry. We've got Defence first, with the Hufflepuffs. Blimey … have you seen how many lessons we've got with Bill on here?" Ron asked, wiping marmalade off the middle of his timetable frowning, so he could point to the lessons beneath.

"She's not here" continued Harry, craning his neck in his seat searching up and down the other house tables. "Why isn't she here? How's she going to get her timetable?"

"It's just a nightmare!" Ron carried on still gazing at his timetable while Harry continued looking around the Hall. "Nearly half our lessons are with him AND we're taking another five NEWTs!"

"Could be worse" added Neville from across the table "at least they aren't with Snape!"

"Well you never know" Seamus joined in "they still aint said who the other teacher is and there's no way your brother can teach us for all these lessons Ron and teach the rest of the school as well".

"Oh no" Neville replied glumly sinking backwards on to the bench " I hadn't thought of that. Five years of endless picking and I still can't get away from him".

"Thanks a lot Seamus!" Hermione grumbled "I spent an hour last night convincing him it wouldn't be Snape!"

"Hermione have you seen Ginny this morning?"

"NO HARRY I haven't seen Ginny this morning!"

"Sorry! I just wondered" Harry replied timidly looking shocked at Hermione's outburst. "So … what lesson have we got first?"

A whole morning of Defence Against the Dark Arts classes flew by because they had so much fun. After last years book based curriculum most people found it nice to get some practise for a change. Of course the DA members had no problems with last years spells; well all except Neville but only with a couple of them. They spent a while in groups performing shield charms to block unfriendly spells but as Ron, Harry and Hermione already knew how to do these they tried helping Neville who was having great difficulty trying to deflect Dean's Nettle hex. Bill, they noticed was having troubles of his own trying to leave Parvarti and Hannah Abbot who kept insisting they didn't understand the charm fully enough to be able to perform it.

"Really!" Hermione muttered "you would think they'd make it a little less obvious wouldn't you"

"Like you did with Lockheart you mean!" Ron laughed "Whoa watch it Neville!" Ron ducked quickly as a red ball of flames shot over his head having rebounded off Neville's shield. "I did it!" Neville cried "I wonder if this would work if people were throwing actual objects at you?"

"Want to try?" Ron offered helpfully!

They didn't get much of a chance to talk to Bill during the morning because he was so busy. But in the ten minutes they did see him, he explained that Gringott's had given him a year off on Dumbeldore's request.

Everybody groaned when Bill announced the end of the lesson but they were placated a bit by the announcement of a Defence Club after school. "A sign up sheet will be going up on your house notice boards tomorrow and the club will start on Friday. Have a nice lunch!".

"Hang on Ron" Harry grabbed the back of Ron's school bag as he went to leg it out of the classroom before everyone else. "lunch will wait I want to have a word with Bill to try and find out who this other teacher is".

"And what makes you think Bill will tell you?" came bill's voice from behind Harry as the last of the students left the classroom leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione alone with Bill. "You will find out the same time as everyone else. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise would I!"

"When is he getting here then?" Ron asked.

"When he gets here" Bill laughed sitting down on top of a desk by Hermione.

"Bill!" Ron shouted grumpily "What about family loyalty? You know we wont tell anyone; we're prefects after all!"

"That's never stopped you before" he smiled. "Oh all right, he'll be here Sunday but don't you tell anyone I told you. Oh and it's Professor Weasley to you little brother!"

"But he'll miss the first defence Club" Hermione stated rather than asked as she was still fishing for more information.

"Ah well that's where Harry comes in and why I was coming over to catch you before you left. Dumbledore and I have been talking about how to set up the defence club so that everybody gets a chance to take part and he told me all about your own little 'insurrection' shall we call it, last year. Anyway we've decided to have two clubs; the first one for years one to four and the other for years five to seven. That way students are also practising the right level of magic. Now because this is open to the whole school and because we might be a little stretched depending on the number of students who sign up and because we have other duties to attend to as well, Dumbledore has suggested that Professor uh…" Bill laughed nervously "… nearly said it! Right where was I? Ah; he suggested that we get some help so that there will be … say … 15 students to one teacher rather than 30".

"And the point of this?" Ron interrupted

"Well the point Little brother is … Professor Flitwick has volunteered to be one of the helpers and we were wondering, Harry, whether you would like to be one of the others?"

"What?!" Harry exclaimed "you want me to teach … properly?"

"What about Quidditch?" Ron called shocked.

"Don't panic!" Bill laughed "it shouldn't interfere with Quidditch. What we planned was for Harry; if you agree that is, to help with the first to fourth years because it will be all things you already know and that will be on a Monday evening. We have already sorted out a timetable of what will be worked on so you wont have to do any preparation and you wont be on your own anyway, so if you have any questions you can just ask who ever is there with you. You'll be given your own group and you help them to practise what is timetabled and give them tips if they need it. Besides I saw you with Neville today and I'm sure you'll be fine. So are you interested?"

"Yes definitely" Harry replied eagerly. "It sounds great and does that mean I still go as normal to the other club?"

"Of course that way you'll get more practise of what we'll be learning to do in class".

"Okay count me in" grinned Harry.

"Right I'll get a timetable to you on the weekend then if I get a chance".

"What else have you got to do?" Hermione asked Bill curiously.

"What? Um just things" Bill responded hesitantly getting up off the desk.

"Hang on" Ron jumped in "what are you up to; what else have you got to do except teach?"

"Just school things Ron. Now come on you had all better get down to lunch if you want to eat before your next class".

"No way" Ron continued "I know when your lying. Your right eyebrow twitches just like Dad and Percy".

"Look I'm just helping Dumbledore out so stop the questions".

"Goblins" Hermione interrupted and Bill turned to look at her.

"What .. How'd you …?"

"Its simple" she reasoned "Harry overheard Professor Dumbledore talking to two goblins at the Order about making an alliance. He obviously picked you as a teacher for a reason. One being your background with curses but then you haven't exactly got a lot of teaching experience have you; no offence. The other reason being you work with Goblins and you said earlier about Dumbledore talking to Gringotts".

"Geez it's like an inquisition in here. You know one day your brain is going to get you in to trouble Miss Granger" Bill laughed. "All right you got me, just don't tell anyone".

"What's the problem though?" Hermione questioned "Fudge has gone now and Dumbledore has the Ministry's backing".

"Not on all things unfortunately". Bill sat back down on the desk again. "Prejudice and xenophobia still runs pretty deep in most people, especially in most of the old wizards that influence the Ministry and Wizengamot. You've read what happened in the last goblin rebellion, you know what they are capable of. A lot of people would rather leave things the way they are and not make an alliance just in case it does happen again. Fear is a powerful thing".

"But surely they're not more scared of the goblins than Voldemort" Harry asked incredulously "that is just daft. That last rebellion was well over a hundred years ago and they haven't done anything since".

"Well you can't change people's attitudes over night but Dumbledores working on it. All the same I might be here a while though!"

"Great!" Ron muttered sarcastically.

"Oh cheer up little brother! It's not like mum has got me writing to her everyday to tell her what you lot are getting up to … she just wants a letter every other day" at which point Ron picked up Hermione's copy of 'Protection Charms and How To Use Them' and hurled it over the desk towards his brother.

"Calm down" Bill laughed stopping the book mid air with his wand and then gliding it over to Hermione "I'm winding you up; besides it's Ginny she wants me to keep an eye on. She thinks she has been looking a bit sickly lately".

"I was looking for her earlier but she wasn't at breakfast" Harry added.

"Oh well, I'll keep an eye out; but if you notice anything Hermione let me know will you?"

"Yes sure" she replied picking up her schoolbag and hauling it on to her back. As usual it was crammed full of textbooks. "Right we really had better hurry now if we want to have something to eat because lunch is nearly over".

"What!" Ron exclaimed jumping up off his desk and grabbing his bag again. "Right we'll see you later Bill" he called as he led the way out of the classroom.

"Okay, but remember, not a word!"

"Yeah, yeah" Ron shouted from the corridor.

"Why is it no matter how much you eat you always grow upwards instead of outwards like everyone else" Hermione moaned at Ron as they made their way down to Hagrid's Hut with Seamus, Dean and Neville after lunch.

"Oh would you rather me be fat then?" Ron replied trying to look offended but not succeeding and getting a slap on the arm from Hermione.

"Oh great!" Harry muttered as they rounded the bend and Hagrid's Hut came in to view. "Why is it EVERY year we get stuck with the ruddy Slytherins".

"Least it wasn't in Defence" Neville added "that would have totally spoilt it".

"I think that was more a case of careful planning" Hermione responded "I mean can you imagine it - sticking Slytherins and Gryffindors together in a class where you can fire spells at each other? It would be all out war. Besides there are Hufflepuffs here too; see there's Ernie".

"Well I know who I'd like to curse" Harry spat through gritted teeth as he spotted Malfoy sat on a large stone by Hagrid's front door, surrounded by a group of black and green Hogwarts robes.

"Go easy Harry; don't spoil Hagrid's first lesson back" Hermione tried to calm him down. "We'll get him back for what he said about Sirius on the train. Just not now. It has to be something big, and totally unexpected" Hermione glared menacingly towards the Slytherins.

"Careful Hermione your starting to sound like Fred and George" Ron laughed nervously.

With the prospect of getting a spectacular revenge on Draco, Harry tried to calm himself and listen to the beginning of Hagrid's lesson. It wasn't easy either as Draco started baiting Harry as soon as he saw him. He even tried upsetting Hermione about the muggle attacks but soon gave up when Hermione just turned and smiled sweetly at him. Hermione had changed a lot since Harry had first met her; out of the three of them she was the calming influence and had always had a knack of being able to handle anyone she met, whether it was to get him and Ron out of trouble or dealing with the likes of Draco Malfoy. Ron was lucky to be going out with Hermione and Harry was lucky to have them both as friends. They were all he had left now that Sirius was gone and it worried him. No matter how much danger he had put them in, in the past, they had always stuck by him and helped him through. His stomach knotted at the thought of meeting Voldemort or a gang of death eaters again without them by his side because there was absolutely no way he would be able to tackle them himself. Everyone saw him as the famous 'boy-who-lived' and was waiting for him to defeat Lord Voldemort again but in his heart and his head, ever since Sirius had gone, Harry just wished he had been just another boy-who-died.

"Harry?" Hagrid's voice pulled him out of his dark depressing thoughts. "Everyone's separated in to pairs; looks like your with Neville here".

Harry looked round and sure enough everyone had paired up and walked off towards the large wicker baskets that were dotted around the pumpkin patch.

"You okay 'Arry?" Hagrid asked sounding concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a bit tired" Harry lied giving Hagrid a weak smile then jogging over to Neville who was sat at a basket near Ron and Hermione.

"Are you all right Harry?" Hermione asked "we did call you".

"I'm fine" he shrugged and leant over the top of the basket reaching to undo the catch but Neville's hand shot out and stopped him. "Not yet Harry, we have to wait".

Harry went to ask why but didn't have a chance as Hagrid clapped his hands loudly to get everyone's attention. "Right, now that I've explained the types of things we'll be looking at fer your NEWTs; it's time fer your firs' creature. Now you'll have to be very careful with these cos they're tricky little blighters if you don' look after them properly". At which point nearly all the class glanced warily sideways at the now shaking wicker baskets. Whatever was in them, Harry thought to himself, obviously knew the sound of Hagrid's voice or that they were about to be let out!

"What we have here are Carbuncles …"

"Oh great" whispered Ron "something else that bites!" at which Harry looked round at him alarmed.

"… they've been fed this morning but they might be a little peckish so if one person from each group will come and get a bowl from the table by 'ere, then we can get started". No one was in a rush to get the bowls and it seemed s if everyone now knew what was in the basket except for Harry.

"Right now that you're all ready, we'll get 'em out … but…" Hagrid had added the but too late and Neville had opened their wicker basket and a smelly, wrinkly, green thing leapt up through the air and bit him on the nose. Neville spun round frantically shaking his head trying to get it off but the Carbuncle had firmly clamped his yellow spiky teeth on to the end of Neville's nose and didn't want to let go.

"Oh dear!" Hagrid groaned as Hermione grabbed her wand, shouted at Neville to stand still and roared 'stupefy' shooting a red flash of light right at the carbuncle making it release its grip and fall to the floor; but also knocking Neville off his feet in the process, landing bum first in to the empty wicker basket.

"Yes, well; well done Hermione, quick thinking there" Hagrid announced as he lifted Neville up with one hand and pulled the basket away with the other. "There you go Neville. You might want to pick him up now and hold him tightly before Hermione wakes 'im up fer you".

Panic stricken and trying to mop up the blood from his nose, Neville looked frantically at Harry.

"Uh … why don't I hold him while Neville sorts the food out?" Harry suggested warily looking at the state of Neville and couldn't help being a bit disappointed when Hagrid slapped him on the back and thrust the stunned Carbuncle in to Harry's hands. "Good lad Harry, 'ere you go. Neville can feed 'im and take the notes" at which Harry felt a bit better knowing it would be Neville's fingers that going near the Carbuncles teeth and not his.

"Right … everyone else listen up. BEFORE you unlock the basket, both of you have to be sat on the floor on the same side of the basket as the lock. One of you pick up a piece of goats meat and the other be ready to grab your animal. Now … the one with the meat open the catch and then open the lid quickly so that your partner can catch your carbuncle when he jumps but DON'T lean over the basket. If you do it like this there's less chance of any of you gettin' hurt" Hagrid glanced wearily at Neville as he said this. "When you have your Carbuncle feed him a couple of pieces of meat while your partner holds him still. It'll help you gain 'is trust; stroke him behind the ear when you've fed him and when he smiles at you, you'll know he's okay so you can put him back in the basket on 'is blanket and he wont run off. Then I want you to draw them. Okay is everyone ready?"

All the students looked round dubiously waiting for someone else to go first; Hagrid's lessons had never been straightforward. "Oh Hermione if you could just wake up Harry's first" Hagrid remembered. Hermione revived Harry's carbuncle and Harry had to clamp his hands together over its arms and legs to try and stop it escaping.

"Okay come one the rest of you" Hagrid said encouragingly. Quickly, Hermione grabbed a piece of goats meat from her bowl and gently lifted the latch as Ron reluctantly got ready to grab. "On three" Hermione said to him "one … two … three!"

Hermione threw back the lid and another dark green creature leapt up in to the air. But this time Ron managed to catch it and sat back with it clutched in his hands. Encouraged by Ron and Hermione's success the rest of the class started to open their own wicker baskets. Harry and Neville sat watching the others for a moment and were in stitches as not everyone managed to catch their animals in time. As Crabbe flung the lid of his basket back, Goyle lunged forward and snatched at the air as the carbuncle flew up through his arms, smacked straight in to Goyle's chin and fell back to the floor dazed and confused. Seamus and dean weren't having much luck either and were chasing their round the pumpkin patch, firing random freezing spells at it.

Eventually everyone had their animals and they all started work on the tasks Hagrid had set them. It appeared one bite of Neville was enough as he had no problem feeding their carbuncle and it hummed soothingly as Neville rubbed behind its ears. "It's quite cute really isn't it" Neville said to Harry. "Hey look" Neville pointed at the carbuncle "it's smiling".

'About ruddy time' Harry thought to himself. It may have been small but it weighed a tonne. Harry put it back in the basket and turned it round so that he could get a better look at it, but was careful not to lean too close in case it leapt up again. It was just under a foot tall, a dark green colour, a bit tubby and had fold of skin all down its chunky little arms and stubby legs. It also had two beady little black eyes and a small squashed face with two large pointy ears on the top, like a cat. It reminded Harry of a miniature version of the Incredible Hulk; one of his cousin Dudley's favourite TV programmes, only it was more flabby than muscly.

"Looks quite harmless really doesn't it" Neville said starting to reach back in to stroke its ears again. But as he did it started to hum softly again and one of the flaps of skin on its forehead rose up to reveal a large oval red ruby positioned right in the middle of its forehead.

"Whoa!" Neville exclaimed as he saw it. "Look it's huge!"

"That must be worth a fortune" Harry replied. "look at its eyes too Neville they've gone all white!"

Neville and Harry were so engrossed in their Carbuncle, they didn't notice Hagrid come up behind them. "Hey, well done lads!" he shouted at which the Carbuncle, startled by the noise, stopped humming and the ruby disappeared back behind the folds of skin.

"Okay everyone" Hagrid called, "you've 'ad a bit of time with yer creatures now, so lets see what you know about 'em".

Hermiones hand immediately shot up in to the air. "Carbuncles are largely found in woods and forests as they like the dark and live off other small woodland creatures. They used to be quite common until around the end of the eighteenth century when robbers and murders used them to lure unsuspecting victims deep in to the forests off woodland paths and country roads. Carbuncles can be tamed and trained to do as their owner tells them. They are most effective at night as their eyes glow bright white and they hum a tune as the victim is hypnotised in to following it".

"Excellent Hermione, ten points to Gryffindor" Hagrid clapped. "Now carbuncles have been listed as endangered because some very bad wizards found a way of making an easier profit off these poor defenceless little things". Harry turned and looked at Neville's nose again which was still bleeding. They obviously had different definitions of defenceless!

"Now all Carbuncles have a jewel right in the middle of their forehead under some protective layers of skin. How many of you apart from Neville here, managed to get yours to show it?" Neville's cheeks went bright red as Hermione and Ron raised their hands along with Seamus and Dean. "Ours had an emerald" Seamus called whilst Hermione and Ron's had a ruby like Harry and Neville's.

"good" Hagrid exclaimed "Now all Carbuncles have different jewels depending on their family lines. The skin of the Carbuncle is very thick despite how flaky it looks and it is very difficult to get the jewel out because if the animal feels threatened it can grow more layers of skin over the top of the jewel to protect it, as it is the source of their powers".

"Why didn't they just kill the Carbuncles and take the jewel to begin with?" Ernie Macmillan called.

"Ah well, these are magical creatures aren't they! The jewel protects the Carbuncle; it can only die if the jewel is smashed first or removed but smashing is completely pointless and removing it isn't so easy cos they may look cute but Carbuncles can put up one hell of a fight. Even stunning them don't work cos more flaps of skin will still grow over the jewel if they are knocked out" Hagrid finished.

"Well how do you get the jewel out then?" Draco Malfoy called from the back of the class, still holding his Carbuncle in his hands as Pansy hadn't been able to make it smile.

Hagrid eyed him warily "well you don't need to know that anyway. You look a bit like your holding 'im a bit too tight. Why don't you try loosening your grip a bit more?" he suggested helpfully.

"What and have this disgusting little freak attack me, I don't think so!" Draco spat, shaking the now alarmed Carbuncle in his hands.

"Well if you aint gonna look after 'im properly Mr Malfoy, then you aint gonna 'ave one" Hagrid replied striding over to Draco and taking the quivering Carbuncle away from him. "There, there little fella" Hagrid whispered gently as he strode back over to Neville and pushed the frightened Carbuncle in to his hands. "Here you go Neville, 'e wont hurt you". Neville took the Carbuncle but kept it at a definite distance from his nose; he wasn't quite so daring now that someone else didn't have hold of its arms and legs.

"I'm not sitting through this" Draco announced rising to his feet and starting to climb the fence out of the pumpkin patch. "I'm going to see Dumbledore. This is stupid, Carbuncles are hardly NEWT level; we were supposed to do them last year". he jumped down off the fence and went to leave.

"There is a point to this lesson yer know" Hagrid called after him.

"Oh funny, I hadn't noticed one. So what's it supposed to be?" Draco hissed turning back round to face the class.

"Not to be led astray in to dark places. Not everything is always what it seems. Even wild things that have been tamed can still turn back and bite, even their own master".

Draco snorted and turned to leave again but screeched and jumped back against the fence as Buckbeak came around the corner of Hagrid's hut towards them and stood in Draco's path.

"Buckbeak!" Harry cried and closing the lid on his basket he jumped up and climbed out of the pumpkin patch too. Buckbeak trotted past Draco straight to Harry who bowed as he approached.

"What on earth is that THING doing here? It's a wanted animal" Draco cried indignantly.

"Not anymore he's not!" Hermione replied joining Harry "Besides what are you going to do? Tell your father?"

Draco looked absolutely furious but he left without another word closely followed by Pansy Parkinson.

"Right that's it for today class" Hagrid called cheerfully. "Just pop your Carbuncles back in to their baskets if you haven't already managed it and latch the lids down. Homework is to read up on Garuda birds for the next lesson".

"Has he been okay?" Harry asked Hagrid after everyone else had left except for Ron and Hermione.

"Well he has been pining a bit, sniffing the air and wandering a lot but all the same, I think he's glad to be home. And I missed you something rotten, didn't I Beaky!" Hagrid patted Buckbeak vigorously but then turned his attention back to Harry.

"I have to admit; I 'alf expected you to turn up on my doorstep last night 'arry".

Harry looked away from Hagrid and carried on stroking Buckbeak. "Creeping around isn't such a good idea anymore Hagrid. I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me".

"Now you hang on just one minute Harry" Hagrid looked astonished "What happened to Sirius was not your fault, not one little bit. Don't tell me that's what you've been thinking all summer?"

"If I hadn't have rushed off …" Harry started but didn't finish because Hermione shouted over him.

"YOU didn't make Sirius leave the house, and YOU didn't make Bellatrix fire a curse at him. He KNEW he wasn't supposed to leave the house but he did it anyway and nothing can change that. And Sirius wouldn't want you blaming yourself for what happened either".

"No he wouldn't, well said Hermione. Sirius wouldn't want people moping, he'd want action!" Hagrid said enthusiastically then hesitated as he realised. "Oh I shouldn't have said that … um what I meant was he'd want revenge … oh um".

Hermione jumped in quickly again "He'd want Dumbledore and the Order to take action, safe action Harry which is what Dumbledore has been doing. Dumbledore will stop them, he has too. He's the only one that can".

Harry stared glumly at the floor knowing this wasn't true. It wasn't Dumbledore who would have to fight Voldemort it was him, Harry, and he didn't have a clue how he was going to be able to do it. He still hadn't told the others about the prophecy and from Hagrid's face it was pretty clear that he didn't know about it either. 'Great man Dumbledore' Hagrid was repeating as he fed Buckbeak a dead ferret. Harry knew he wasn't ready to tell them about it yet either so he let it drop.

Uncomfortable with the silence, Ron changed the subject. "So … what you been up to over the summer Hagrid? Any more mountain trips?"

"No Dumbledore's handling that now; I've been busy here, lots to get ready for yer new term".

"Dumbledore's been to see the giants then?" Hermione asked.

"Well no I didn't say that did I".

"But he hasn't given up on making an alliance with them then?" Harry asked.

"Ah well Dumbledore's a powerful wizard and he won't give up on anything. You should have learnt that by now".

"Well what about the Goblins then?" Hermione persisted.

"Goblins! How'd you now about that? That's top secret that is. Don't you go shouting about that. Get us in to trouble that would. Some peoples are more scared of goblins fighting us than meeting a dementor".

"Well that is just stupid" Harry said sarcastically.

"Well you and me knows that firsthand Harry, but that's just the way it is. Fear is a powerful feeling to overcome".

"That's what Bill said" Hermione added.

"you've been talking to Bill too have you? Who else have you been chatting too?" Hagrid asked looking concerned.

"Just you too" Ron promised. "We're not stupid you know".

"Well just you be careful" Hagrid explained "these days you never know who might be listening. Oh which reminds me! There's someone else really looking forward to seeing you all, especially you Hermione! Or should I saw Herme!"

"Oh no" Hermione shuddered as Hagrid beamed at her. "Don't tell me you still have Grawp here!"

"Yeah of course, where else would he be! He's comin' on in leaps and bounds too, and Dumbledore's helping. His English is much better and he keeps saying he wants to play with Herme. He was dead excited when I said you'd be back this week".

"Oh great!" Hermione said very unenthusiastically as Harry laughed. Ron not having met Grawp wasn't quite sure what to say. Harry and Hermione had told him all about Hagrid's little brother but he wasn't all that keen on meeting a proper giant after all he had read about them; even if Grawp had been tamed.

"Right come on you three, better hurry if you want to make your next lesson on time. I don't think Professor Mcgonagall will be too happy if your late".

And she wasn't either when they burst in five minutes late gasping for breath and looking dishevelled having run all the way there. It didn't matter that they lost five house points each though because Hermione made them back up again answering the questions Mcgonagall set the class.

As Harry sat down to dinner in the Great hall he and Ron decided it had been a good first day back and was only going to get better with Quidditch tryouts in an hour too. Harry's happiness was short lived however, as just as he got up to go and get ready, Professor Snape crossed the Hall from the teachers table and came straight towards him.

"Evening Potter I trust you had a pleasant holiday" he sneered looking down at Harry contemptuously. "as much as it displeases me, your presence requested in my dungeon at seven o'clock tomorrow evening to continue your remedial potions lessons. Professor Dumbledores orders I'm afraid. Make sure you arrive on time!" Having announced this loudly enough for most of the Gryffindor table to hear, Professor Snape sauntered off to the Slytherin table.

"Geez Harry, that's really harsh" Dean said sympathetically "and we haven't even had a normal potions lesson yet and your not that bad!".

Harry just shrugged as none of the other students knew he was actually having occlumency lessons. He left the Hall soon after that with Ron and Hermione who, annoyingly for Harry, kept insisting the sooner he started the lessons again the better.


	9. Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari...

****

Chapter Nine

The Midnight Library Visit

There was a large crowd gathered round the Gryffindor notice board when Harry and Ron entered the Common Room the next morning. Students were chatting happily as they waited to get to the front of the group; many of them clutching feathered quills.

"What's going on?" Harry asked Hermione as they joined her in the queue.

"Everyone's signing up for Defence Club. The enrolment sheet has been put up".

"Oh right" Ron yawned. "I thought for a moment they were vandalising the new Quidditch team list". Harry laughed.

His encounter with Snape yesterday in the Great Hall turned out to be the only real upset of the day. The whole team turned up for the tryouts; Harry's message somehow having managed to get to Ginny even though Harry had spent most of the day looking for her.

It had been a cool, dry evening and well over half of Gryffindor must have turned up to try out for the team. Ron was particularly relieved, however, when Hermione handed over the broomstick she had carried on to the Quidditch pitch to Ginny. This was of course only after she had stood patiently in the try out queue for ten minutes waving and smiling at Ron whenever he turned round to check if she was still there.

"Thank god" he muttered to Harry quietly so that Ginny wouldn't hear. "Can you imagine what would have happened when you had to tell Hermione she wasn't very good at something!"

"Hey, hang on! What do you mean when I told her!" Harry exclaimed.

"Well no offence mate but she's my girlfriend! I'd rather keep all my body parts thank you very much! Besides …" Ron laughed "you know there are loads of things I'll do for you, but risking the wrath of Hermione aint one of them. Give me a group of death eaters any day!"

The tryouts had gone rather well, even if it had seemed like they were taking forever. Even Madam Hooch, who had come down to supervise, had given Harry a few pointers on what to look for. It was Ron that had been kept the busiest though as there were only two chaser positions available and he had to catch all the Quaffles. 'Least he was getting plenty of practise' Hermione had joked.

As Harry had watched Colin Creevey clumsily trying to avoid the bludger Andrew Kirke had shot at him and hang on to the Quaffle and his broomstick, he realised just how much extra work he'd let himself in for. Not that he minded; it finally felt like he was getting back to some kind of normality after all that had happened in the last few months.

It had been hard work picking only two people, and a shame really as they could easily have put a second team together this year. In the end though, Harry narrowed it down to five students and then consulted the rest of the team to see what they thought. All the Gryffindors had crowded around them restlessly when Harry called them together to make the announcement. Seamus Finnegan and Erin Dowill, a blonde third year, were chosen as the new Gryffindor Chasers.

Most of the Gryffindors had then stayed up late celebrating; and though it had seemed like a good idea at the time, Harry was definitely regretting it now. Wednesday morning had arrived far to quickly with Harry only having had five hours sleep. Professor Mcgonagall had appeared at two o'clock in the morning to herd them all of to bed after Owen Cauldwell and Euan Abercrombie , having taken it upon themselves to become the new Fred and George, decided to demonstrate Weasleys Wizardly Wheezes new Supersonic Belching Mints. As entertaining as it was, none of them had realised that their belches were echoing throughout the entire school. Fifty house points less later they all went to bed but Seamus, however, had been so excited that he didn't want to sleep and kept wanting to talk about training tactics while the other boys were trying hard to drop off. Still, as Harry looked around the room now, most of the Gryffindors still looked in high spirits despite the lack of sleep, even Ginny who smiled and waved to Harry as she headed towards the Fat Lady with Parvarti Patil.

Having finally got to the front of the notice board, Harry, Ron and Hermione added their names to the long list of Gryffindor students who had already signed up for the Defence Club and then went downstairs to the Great Hall for breakfast. They didn't rush through breakfast though, as no one was particularly looking forward to the prospect of a full morning of Potions. Neville, for once, was in very good spirits and sitting at the table with a huge grin on his face. "Bet Perenology doesn't look so silly now does it!" he said happily. To Harry the prospect of studying a tree all morning did seem more appealing now even if it did sound boring.

The only thing that got Harry through a morning of hell was the thought of

Defence class after lunch. Snape was his usual evil self and took great delight in pointing out all of Harry's mistakes to the entire class. Despite the fact that if Snape hadn't been constantly hovering behind him and watching over his shoulder then he probably wouldn't have made them at all. That and Draco Malfoys look of utter glee when Professor Snape reminded Harry about his remedial potions lesson, had Harry seriously reconsidering his choice of NEWTs and he was first out of the dungeon when lunch time finally arrived.

Much to Harry's disappointment, after lunch double Defence flew past. Bill still wouldn't tell them who the new teacher was despite Hermione's constant questions. Their first double Herbology lesson went quickly as well.

This year they had moved in to Greenhouse Eight. Ever since Harry had first come to Hogwarts he had always wondered what was behind the dark, blacked out windows as only the sixth formers were allowed in. Fred and George used to tell them stories about killer plants and strangling trees but Harry was very disappointed to end up standing in what looked like a tropical jungle, swatting biting insects away from his face, while he disentangled Ron from a singing and dancing Poppy Vine plant. Hermione, who had partnered Neville, was having no problems whatsoever and their plant hopped around playfully as Neville held out its tendrils for Hermione to measure.

Dinner in the Great Hall came and went, and Harry walked slowly to the dungeons on his own as Ron and Hermione had to go to a Prefects meeting called by Eddie Carmichael, the new Head Boy. Eddie was a Ravenclaw and Harry had seen him around a few times but didn't really know a lot about him.

"You are late Mr Potter!" Harry snapped out of his trance quickly and came face to face with professor Snape who was stood imposingly, in the dungeon doorway. "Taking your lessons as seriously as ever, I see!" Snape's voice boomed down the empty dim corridor. Harry went to respond but Snape had already turned around and re-entered his classroom. Harry followed him in sombrely and closed the door behind him.

"Now Mr Potter, have you been practising what I taught you last time?" Snape asked, his eyes boring in to Harry's. "No I didn't think so!" he replied to himself sneeringly. With a flick of his wand Professor Snape cleared the large benches from the middle of the room and piled them neatly against the side of the dungeon. "Right well, lets see what you remember shall we!" He gestured for Harry to step in to the centre of the room. Harry stepped forward and took out his wand.

"On the count of three then; one … two … _Legilimens_!" Snape struck before Harry was ready and he had no time to rouse any resistance. Suddenly images were racing through his mind … Dudley and Piers chasing him through the park when he was seven … Hagrid giving him Hedwig for his eleventh birthday … his first flight on Buckbeak over the Forbidden Forrest … Sirius' face … "No!" yelled Harry and he dropped heavily on to his knees on the floor as the dungeon came rushing back in to focus.

"How many times must we go through this Mr Potter, _control_!" Snape snapped irritably, as he doused the green flames that had burnt a hole in the right sleeve of his robes. "Focus! Clear your head" he said coldly. "Use your mind to repel me. Let go of all thoughts and feelings no matter how trivial they are!"

"How?" Harry shouted back at him. "How am I supposed to stand here and clear my head when YOUR standing there bellowing and pointing your wand at me. It's not exactly a calming situation is it!"

"DO NOT RAISE your voice at ME!" Snape roared back. "You INSOLENT child! Dumbledore is a fool for thinking that YOU are capable of learning this".

"Well maybe it's the teacher who's at fault and not the student!" Harry spat back, giving Snape a filthy look. Harry had changed and they both knew it. The way he saw it now was that he had nothing to lose. He had two more years of Hogwarts left, that is if he didn't die first, and with no Sirius to stick up for him he would be damned if he was going to let Snape ruin the time he had left.

"Whether you like it or not, I HAVE to teach you this!" Snape hissed through gritted teeth and he leant forward towering over Harry who was still on his knees on the floor; both of them were tightly gripping their wands.

"The Dark Lord will not wait until you are in a good mood to attack you" Snape continued. "He will NOT announce himself first and he WILL NOT count to three to give you a chance to empty your juvenile little HEAD! He has already read you once to see that he could manipulate you through the one person you pathetically cared about. What will he see if he reads you again? Ronald Weasley maybe, or perhaps Miss Granger or even … Ginny Weasley?" Snape said simultaneously as the thought of Ginny being taken popped in to Harry's head and Snape smiled.

How had he seen that? Had he seen it or did he out it there? No one knew about the way Harry had been thinking about Ginny lately, not even Harry had been entirely sure until now. But as angry as Harry was, the thought of him endangering his friends did sober him up rather quickly. His head still throbbing he got up to face Snape again, wand ready.

"Right, well, we'll try again shall we?" Snape straightened his robes and stepped back in to position. "One … two … _legilimens_!"

Harry shut his eyes and surrounded himself with blackness. It worked for a few seconds but then a memory popped in to his head … it was Dumbledore and the glass orb in the Ministry car a couple of days ago. Harry took a deep breath and concentrated on the blackness. It worked again for a few seconds but then another image popped in to his head. He was sat in Dumbledore's office. Delicate silver instruments were whirring gently on spindly-legged tables; Fawkes was chirping happily on his stand in the corner and the portraits of past headmasters and headmistresses were asleep in their frames. Harry turned and saw a table standing on its side and a lunascope shattered by the fireplace. He heard Dumbledore beckon him to come and sit down by the fireplace and that's when he remembered this memory. Dumbledore was going to tell him about the prophecy. Then he remembered Snape; he had to stop it. Snape couldn't know about the prophecy, he mustn't. Dumbledore may trust him but Harry certainly didn't. He focused harder than he thought possible especially as his head was throbbing even more. Dumbledore had started talking now and he had to stop it. Blackness, everything went black and Harry could have sworn he heard Snape growl in frustration but he carried on concentrating, trying to keep his head blank.

But the darkness went again and to Harry's utter horror he found himself stood in the Department of Mysteries. Stone benches ran all around the room and came down in steep steps. Harry was stood at the bottom next to the raised stone dais that was in the centre of the room. On the middle of the dais was an old stone archway and from it hung a tattered black veil, which fluttered ever so slightly, even though there was no breeze. All of a sudden people appeared around him and sparks shot past Harry and chaos appeared as witches and wizards fired spells at each other. Up on the steps Harry watched himself with Neville and saw Sirius rescue them from Anton Dolohov. This memory had played over and over in Harry's head all summer; he hadn't been able to stop it then and he doubted he'd be able to stop it now. He saw Dumbledore appear at the top of the steps and knew what was coming. Back in his body at the top of the stairs, Harry looked down to see Sirius goading Bellatrix Lestrange from beside the arch. Then Harry saw him; Snape, standing a couple of metres from Harry as they were positioned in the classroom, but he had turned; watching Sirius with a huge smile across his face as Sirius was hit in the chest by a jet of red light and fell slowly backwards with a look of complete shock on his face. As he fell backwards though, his eyes locked with Harry's up on the steps. Harry hadn't told anyone that Sirius had called to him for help with his eyes before he went through the veil; begging him to help. No one had known until now and Snape just stood there smiling; smiling at the veil.

"NO!!" screamed Harry loudly and as the dungeon came rushing back in to view again, he heard a loud bang and a crash. He feel to his knees again and clutched at his head to try and stop the incessant banging and shooting pains. He pushed his glasses back up off the end of his nose and brought his eyes back in to focus. Professor Snape was now lying in a heap against the wall at the front of the dungeon, surrounded by broken jars which were oozing green smelly liquids. He was out cold. Harry knew that he had done it but he didn't care.

The dungeon door flew open and Harry spun round with his wand still raised, to face Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Dumbledore.

"Oh my lord!" Mcgonagall cried as she hurried forward to the unconscious form of Professor Snape. "Severus, Severus?" she shouted shaking his shoulder as Dumbledore walked slowly forwards towards Harry.

Harry lowered his wand; tears streaming down his face but the anger still boiled through him. Dumbledore looked deeply in to Harry's eyes for a moment and then spoke to him. Harry thought he would be furious but he just calmly said "You're tired. I think you've had enough for your first lesson. Go back to your dormitory and we will talk tomorrow".

Harry pocketed his wand and after glancing over at the still unconscious form of Professor Snape, he turned and meekly left the dungeon, not even daring to meet Dumbledore's eyes.

Back in his dormitory, Harry climbed in to bed and pulled the curtains of his four poster shut. All the others were already in bed asleep; he must have been in the dungeon for hours. Lying in his bed and staring up in to the dark, all Harry had just seen again, played over and over in his mind. He couldn't sleep and he couldn't stop seeing the memory of Sirius' death. Sirius' eyes locked with his; Sirius scared and pleading for help. But again and again he fell backwards through the veil and disappeared. Harry, in that moment, powerless to stop it.

Harry tossed and turned, frustrated that he couldn't switch off. But then that was the problem wasn't it. To stop Snape getting in he had to be able to switch off, to blank everything out but he couldn't. If he learnt how to do this then maybe it would help him sleep as well.

Harry quietly pulled back the curtains and crept to the end of his bed, opening his Trunk. Pulling out his father's invisibility cloak, he wrapped it around himself and quietly made his way through the dormitory in the dark.

Ten minutes later Harry was creeping in to the library. If Snape wasn't going to teach him properly then Harry would do it himself. "_Lumos_" Harry muttered quietly, igniting his wand so that he could make his way through the large book shelves without bumping in to anything. The last thing he needed to do tonight was get caught by Mr Filch and reported to Dumbledore, when Dumbledore had already told him to go back to the dormitory. Though technically he HAD been back to the dormitory, he just hadn't stayed there. Though he doubted Professor Dumbledore would agree with his view on this. He was in enough trouble already.

Harry slowly made his way to the back of the library to the Restricted Section. Harry figured that as Occlumency was supposed to be an obscure branch of magic and Voldemorts use of Legilimency as a dark art would mean any useful information on it would be restricted. The Restricted Section of the Library, however, whilst restricted, was also very large. Harry wandered up and down the rows for a while holding up his wand to illuminate the book spines. It took him twenty minutes to find one relating to Occlumency. He pulled it out and carried it over to a desk. He spent the next hour reading it; trying to memorise passages as he had forgotten to bring parchment and a quill.

Feeling his eyes start to get heavy and his mind starting to wander, Harry decided enough was enough; it was time to go to bed. He had learnt a bit more about Occlumency and hopefully his better understanding of it would help him to deal with Snape's next onslaught. He still hadn't found an easier way to clear his mind though but at least now he had a plan. There were more books here to read and at least tomorrow he might be able to get Hermione to help him find what he wanted. Also tomorrow, as they were now sixth formers, they could wander around the restricted Section freely and wouldn't have to huddle under Harry's cloak in the dark. Harry had only come now because he hadn't been able to wait until morning.

Rising from the desk, Harry closed the book and walked back to the shelf that he had gotten it from. He carefully slid it back in to the gap not wanting to disturb the books on either side in case they suddenly screamed out or made a noise; as some books in the Dark Arts section had been known to do.

Harry lowered his hand back down but the light from his wand illuminated the row of books on the next shelf down and the one right in the middle caught his eye. Harry just stared at it for a moment dumbstruck, a hundred thoughts shooting through his mind. Reaching slowly forward and pulling the dark green leather book out of its row, Harry turned it over to read the front cover. There, in bright gold italic lettering, Harry read 'The Unforgivable Curses and their Uses in History by Lily Rose Evans'.

Any thought of going back to his dormitory and going to sleep evaporated just as suddenly as him finding the book. Throwing back the hood of his cloak so that he could see better, Harry lifted the book closer to check he hadn't misread it. He hadn't and all his tiredness gone, he rushed back to the library table, this time lighting the candles that were on it, not caring if he got caught, just as long as he could look inside the book. Harry went straight to the contents page to see if he could find anything that said whether it was his mother that had written it. After all, there couldn't really be that many witches called Lily Evans could there? Flicking rapidly through the pages Harry saw that each of the curses had been broken down and there were sections on how they were used and suggested methods of defending against them. There were also some pretty gruesome pictures. There were stories of famous aurors and how they had dealt with them and there was also a large chapter on Dumbledore and the dark wizard Grindelwald. As much as Harry realised this book could be very useful to him, he was still desperate to find out something about his mother. Coming to the last page Harry found a short biography about the author, right at the back of the book. There, smiling up at him and waving, was his mother stood at the front doors of Hogwarts in black Professor's robes, cuddling the large bump that was her tummy. 'She was here when she was pregnant with me' Harry thought to himself. Her red hair and bright green eyes were unmistakable. Underneath her picture was a short biography of her.

**'Lily Evans' first book 'Unusual Hexes and Curses from**

Asia and Africa' was a national bestseller. A former Auror

for the Ministry of Magic in the United Kingdom, Lily Evans

now works as the Defence Against the dark Arts Teacher in

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she

has been helping to prepare and train the next generation

of witches and wizards, for the past three years. She is

currently working on a new book, details of which will be

released shortly.'

Harry quickly flicked back through all the pages but that was all there was. He couldn't believe what he had just read. His mother used to teach here. Why had no one mentioned it before? Or that she had written books about the Dark Arts. Lupin surely would have known. And Dumbledore definitely would have.

A bang suddenly echoed through the Library and Harry quickly extinguished the candles with his wand.

Pulling up the hood of his invisibility cloak, Harry hugged the book tightly to his chest and got up. This one he was taking back to the dormitory with him to show Ron and Hermione first thing in the morning. He was tired of secrets. Dumbledore may have been expecting to talk about the Occlumency lesson tomorrow but Harry wanted some answers about his mother.

As he approached the Library doors Argus filch, the school caretakers, entered with his cat, Mrs Norris. Harry froze and waited for them to pass before he crept out and made his way back quietly to Gryffindor Tower; his mothers' book still clenched tightly in his arms and his desire to sleep long gone.


	10. Harry Potter and the light of the istari...

Chapter 10

The Gift

It was six o'clock in the morning and Harry paced up and down the Gryffindor common room floor, his mother's book still clutched to his chest. He had managed a couple of restless hours sleep but then came back downstairs to think. He desperately wanted to go and wake up Ron and Hermione but he knew it was still too early. Just half an hour more; they'd understand. It was as Harry was pacing, however, that he realised he had a problem. There was no way he or Ron could get up the staircase to the girl's dormitories, so if he wanted to talk to Hermione he would have to wait until she got up herself.

Harry walked over to the bottom of the staircase to try and figure out a way up but there were no statues to tap or paintings to question. Not wanting to set off any alarms Harry decided not to try and climb up around the hand rail. If everyone got woken up, they wouldn't be very happy and it would also mean he wouldn't be able to talk to Ron and Hermione privately. Dispirited Harry had one last glance around the stairwell and was about to turn away when Crookshanks appeared on the corner step. He purred loudly and thumped his way down the rest of the stone steps, brushing and winding himself between Harry's legs, nearly knocking him over because of his size. Harry got down on his knees and stroked the cat's head. "Crookshank's go get Hermione for me. Please!" Harry said pleadingly, willing the cat to understand him. Head tilted looking at Harry curiously, Crookshanks stood still for a few seconds then turned and bounded up the stairs.

Harry rose and listened carefully for any sign of movement. A few minutes later shrieks erupted and Harry heard running feet and a door being swung open. Hermione was whispering continuous apologies to someone and then came stomping down the stairs. She came round the corner with Crookshanks clutched in her arms; her curly hair sticking up in all directions and a look of thunder on her face. She jumped as she saw Harry, surprised to see someone else up. "Oh please tell me he didn't wake you up as well!" she whispered crossly.

"Uh … no" Harry said hesitantly, now wondering whether it had been such a good idea. But then it wasn't the cats fault so he owned up. "Actually I asked Crookshanks to go and get you … I didn't know what else to do. Why? What happened?"

"This stupid cat is going to get me kicked out of my dormitory, that's what happened! You could have stuck a note on him or something" Hermione replied irritably. "I thought he just wanted to play so I kept pushing him off and tried to go back to sleep".

"Well what was the screeching about then?"

"Well as he couldn't get me up he decided to get my attention by jumping up on Parvarti's bed and sitting on her face! As if she hasn't got enough to deal with at the moment. Lavender's back too; poor thing looked like she was going to have a heart attack".

Harry tried not to laugh as he pictured Parvarti running round the dormitory flailing her arms as Crookshanks clung to her head. "Oh god I'm sorry Hermione … I just needed to see you … and Ron. I'd better run up and get him".

"Well hurry up; I'll put Crookshanks out".

Harry ran up to the boy's dormitory to get Ron as Hermione opened the portrait of the Fat Lady so that Crookshanks could go for a walk. As she sat back down by the fire Harry came back followed by a disgruntled looking Ron.

"All right, what's happened now?" Ron yawned sinking in to the chair next to Hermione.

"This" Harry said simply, dropping the green leather library book on to the small table in front of them. Hermione leaned forward and pulled it closer, both she and Ron said nothing as they read the front cover.

"Did you know?" Harry asked edgily, impatient for an answer.

"No" Ron replied as Hermione turned to the contents page. "I didn't either Harry and I've been all through the library and I've never seen this before. Are you sure it's your mother? When did she write it?"

"She wrote it when she was working here, as the Defence against the Dark Arts Teacher nineteen years ago. There's a biography and a picture at the back". Hermione flipped the book over, turning straight to the back page and started to read out the short biography to Ron.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked. "Someone would have said and surely there would have been a record of it somewhere, or a portrait. All the teachers have portraits".

"So you really didn't know?" Harry said disappointed sinking in to the armchair opposite them.

"Blimey Harry, we'd never keep something like this from you" Ron replied still staring at the waving image of Harry's mother.

"Where was this?" Hermione asked closing the book to stop Ron staring at the picture.

"In the Restricted section of the library. I found it last night" Harry answered numbly. He had waited hours to speak to them and he still didn't have any answers. Sirius had never really said much about his mother; he'd always told Harry stories of what he had gotten up to with James, and Harry had always been glad to hear them.

"What were you doing in the library last night?" Hermione interrupted his thoughts. "What happened to your occlumency lesson?"

"Uh … I went after" Harry didn't want to have to explain about everything that had happened with Snape. But sensing Harry's unease at the question Hermione didn't ask anything else about it.

"You should ask one of the teachers" Ron suggested, completely oblivious to Harry's twitchiness.

"You could see Dumbledore after breakfast" Hermione added.

"Uh … maybe". Harry had been hoping to put off his meeting with Dumbledore as long as possible. He wanted to find out about his mother, not be chastised about attacking Professor Snape. He had been thinking about it all night and was now fairly sure that there was no way Snape would miss out on Harry being told off. He was bound to be there to make sure Harry got all the blame, and Harry didn't want to ask about his mother in front of Snape as Dumbledore might not want to answer.

"Or Hagrid" Ron continued. "We've got him first lesson, he must know something. Or you could try writing to Lupin".

"That would take too long" Harry replied grumpily.

"Look" Hermione said "We had better go back upstairs and get dressed; everyone will be getting up soon. Put the book away somewhere safe Harry and we'll try and think of something over breakfast".

An hour later they were sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall listening to Seamus recount Neville's encounter with the Whomping Willow the day before and his attempt to get a bark sample for his homework.

"They set you all homework to get a chunk out of the Whomping Willow?" Hermione asked disbelievingly.

"Well not exactly" Neville responded. "It could have been any full grown tree …"

"So you thought you'd hack at the one that hits back?" laughed Ron.

"I figured I'd get more marks if it was an unusual tree".

"We nearly got expelled for damaging that tree" Ron replied.

"Yes well, you did drive a car in to it" Hermione pointed out sarcastically. "There's a slight difference!"

There was a loud whooshing sound as dozens of owls flew in to the hall bringing the morning post. Harry was surprised to find Hedwig land in front of him with a letter attached to her leg. He hadn't written to anyone and the only other person that usually sent him mail was Sirius.

Harry untied the string and gave Hedwig a few pieces of bacon rind. Picking up the scroll Harry saw the Hogwarts seal and realised instantly that it was from Dumbledore. He looked up at the teachers table but Dumbledore was deep in conversation with Professor Mcgonagall. Harry sighed and opened the scroll. In emerald green ink, Dumbledore had written

Harry

Please come to my office directly after breakfast. You have

Been excused from your first lesson.

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft

and Wizardry

Harry looked back up at the teachers table but Dumbledore was still talking. Harry did catch Hagrid's eye though and knew something had already been said as Hagrid gave him a weak, sympathetic smile.

"Oh dear" Hermione said having read the letter that Harry had let drop on to the table. "He must have found out that you took the book from the library without booking it out. At least you'll get your answers now".

Harry just shrugged guiltily.

"It is about the book isn't it? What did happen in your occlumency lesson? Why did you go to the library?" Hermione questioned. But Harry didn't have to answer as the doors to the Great Hall swung open and Professor Snape strode in, supporting himself on a walking stick.

"Okay maybe not now then" Hermione whispered as Snape passed them, glaring evilly at Harry.

"Bloody hell" Ron whispered. "What's happened to him?" But noticing Harry's guilty expression he stopped and Hermione gestured to the letter.

Half an hour later Harry stood at the base of the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledores office, having left Ron and Hermione in the Entrance Hall. Professor Dumbledore had made no eye contact with Harry throughout breakfast; not even on his way out of the Hall. Ron and Hermione had accepted Harry's rushed explanation of an accident and hadn't asked why it had happened when Harry didn't explain it any further. They did however, promise to try and ask Hagrid about Lily's time at Hogwarts if Harry wasn't there by second lesson, just in case Dumbledore wouldn't discuss it.

Harry now stood at the statue reciting the names of as many sweets as he could remember, as Dumbledore's password was always some variety of confectionary. He had just called out strawberry sugar quills when the statue groaned and started to move aside. Thinking he had guessed correctly, Harry was taken aback to come face to face with Professor Snape on the stone staircase. Snape, however, didn't utter a word to Harry; he just gave his usual contemptuous glare and continued hobbling down the last few stone steps. Harry continued up the staircase but hesitated outside the polished oak door. But he wasn't there long as the door swung wide open and Dumbledore stood in front of his large desk waiting for him.

"Come in Harry" Dumbledore called and gestured to the large purple armchairs next to the unlit fireplace.

Harry staggered forward in to the large circular room, his legs stiff, not wanting to carry him in. Harry sat in the nearest chair, facing Dumbledore who merely walked around to the other side of his desk and stared absently out of the large arched window in to the sunny grounds.

"I owe you an apology Harry" Dumbledore said quietly, his back still to Harry. "But not for what you are probably thinking. We both know you and Professor Snape have a rather … contemptuous relationship, even if you both don't see that it need not be. And I realise that you don't like him teaching you, but it is necessary and it is important that he teaches you what he knows. I explained last term why I could not teach you myself and for the most part that reason still stands. If Lord Voldemort were to discover that our relationship is more than student and head master then he might try and use you to spy on me. You are at your weakest when your mind is being probed, which is why it is important that I am not doing the probing. I don't want to put you at risk Harry, or at least anymore than you already are. This is why Professor Snape _has_ to help with your lessons".

"But he's not helping me" Harry interrupted. "I still can't do it!"

Professor Dumbledore turned and looked grimly at Harry before walking over to the fireplace and sitting in the armchair opposite him.

"Occlumency is a very hard skill to master Harry. You are not going to be able to do it instantly, and I am not expecting you to. It has taken even some of the most intelligent wizards in the past years to conquer it. It is not like a normal spell that you can practice a few times and then perform it. There is a lot more too it than that". Dumbledore turned to look at Harry over the top of his purple half moon spectacles. "It's just unfortunate however, that we haven't got years to teach you. I'm not expecting you to master it completely Harry; just to be able to put up some resistance and protect yourself".

Harry looked glumly at the floor. This wasn't getting him anywhere. He knew why he had to learn it; he just couldn't do it.

"Professor Snape has shown you the basic principles of what to do; has he not?" Dumbledore asked questioningly, gazing more intently at Harry, and Harry brought his attention back to his headmaster and nodded. "Maybe it will help to explain more about how memories are used".

Dumbledore pulled his wand out of his robe pocket and waved it gently in the air. A rectangular wooden table appeared on the rug between the two armchairs; with a tray of cakes, a small plate of marshmallows and two large round steaming mugs.

"I hope drinking chocolate is okay Harry. At my age I'm starting to tire of tea". Harry smiled as Dumbledore leant forward, picked up his mug and began dipping marshmallows in to it.

"Memories are past thoughts and experiences. Even the simple act of dipping a marshmallow in to my chocolate now, will become a memory as soon as it has happened. Everything a person says or does make up a memory no matter how small or insignificant a thing it was. Even these are kept; stored in your head. You just don't remember them until something triggers them. Imagine all your thoughts and experiences being put away in to millions of little boxes with labels on. If you trigger the label; then you can open the box". Dumbledore paused and put his mug back on the table.

"Now with every memory there are emotions; sometimes one, sometimes many. It is the emotions attached to the memory that make some memories more prominent than others. Which is where we come to my apology … Professor Snape did what he did last night because I asked him too".

"What!" shouted Harry sitting forward suddenly in his chair and spilling hot chocolate over himself. "No … you can't … you don't understand, you don't know what he did … what he saw!" Harry stuttered trying to reach forward to put his mug on the table without spilling anymore but his hands were shaking too much.

"I have heard and I have seen; Severus has shown me".

Harry looked at Dumbledore with utter disbelief.

"Let me explain" Dumbledore continued. "You know from personal experience the strength of pleasure that Lord Voldemort gets from using hatred, pain and fear; you have felt it! He doesn't feel love or happiness; good emotions, he doesn't understand them but he feeds off the bad ones. He can manipulate people by using them and by manipulating emotions you can manipulate memories. You can change a memory by changing the emotion. It's like convincing someone that they've misinterpreted a situation and that while they thought someone was being nice; they were actually doing something bad. It's how he has turned a lot of witches and wizards in to death eaters; by convincing them that their thoughts and memories and values are wrong or misguided and that he can make it right. Their loyalty is all the more powerful because they have made the choice to follow him, not realising they have been manipulated. Sometimes it's an influence that even the strongest of wizards cannot break. It's how he could possibly get in to your head and convince you to let your defences down so that he can take over your body. While you still have some degree of control you can still fight him. I had to see whether you had that control which is why I asked Professor Snape to do as he did. Now certain memories can be manipulated more than others, highly emotional moments and upsetting memories will always surface to the top first as you get older. Things have been happening so fast lately; I had to know whether yours could be changed".

"How do you mean changed?" Harry asked confused. "He didn't change it, he just watched it".

"Ah but he did Harry" Dumbledore sighed. "Normally in an occlumency reading memories will flash by as images and the receiver has to read them quickly, to sort them in their own head. But by manipulating the memory you slow them down and play out the entire event, not just seeing flashes. This makes the person being read feel all the same emotions they first felt at the time, over again. I should have realised when I asked Professor Snape to do this, that he would be more inclined to pick a memory of Sirius to try and alter. I should have told him not too but I was wrong and I am truly sorry. I realised what might happen, what memory would probably surface first but I got to you too late. You are not to blame Harry and neither is Professor Snape".

"But he stood there, watching and smiling" Harry said angrily. "He didn't have to do that. He enjoyed watching Sirius be murdered!"

"Professor Snape did exactly what he was supposed too, as Lord Voldemort would do" Dumbledore answered calmly. "He implanted himself in to a memory now giving you two versions of the same event in your head. The only thing he didn't alter was the emotions you felt; the sadness and anger that you felt over Sirius' loss. If he had wanted too he could have Harry". Dumbledore paused and gazed at Harry for a few moments. "I trust Severus, Harry and it is about time you started too as well. There may come a time in the future when I can't be there and you may need his help".

Harry glared angrily over Dumbledore's shoulder and watched Fawkes on his golden perch in the corner. He flapped his wings restlessly, ruffling his scarlet and gold feathers.

"You have to let go of your anger Harry and remember the most important tool that will help you defeat Lord Voldemort is your heart. You have to cling to your happy memories; pick the strongest ones so that if he does try to get in and manipulate them, then he won't be able to bear it".

"But you'd know if he had taken over me wouldn't you?" Harry asked.

"As I said before I can not always be around, especially with the number of things happening at the Ministry at the moment. Besides, sometimes a few minutes are all it takes".

"A few minutes to what?"

"To search your mind, look for our conversations, plans of the Order, members names, find out who you care about the most and people who you would be lost or broken without … even to alter a memory or plant an instruction or doubt".

"Unless I do this, everyone I care about is at risk" Harry mumbled grimly.

"Your love for these people will help you fight him in the end, Harry and you must not forget that. We will help you learn to empty your head and control what memories arise but there are other ways too".

Dumbledore rose from his chair and went to the black cabinet that stood besides Fawkes' perch. He opened the catch and took out a shallow stone basin, carved with stone runes around the edges. Dumbledores walked back and carefully placed the empty Pensieve on the table. Harry looked closely at it as Dumbledore sat back down; it was different from the last one he had seen. It was smaller and there was no silver liquid in it and the symbols looked different also.

"You remember what this is?" Dumbledore smiled gently.

"It's a Pensieve".

"This one is yours Harry. I have had it made especially for you. You will be taught how to use it and it will be kept for your occlumency lessons to begin with. BUT there are a number of things you must remember. Memories are what make us the people that we are. By removing a memory from your head and placing it in to the Pensieve you are, in effect, removing an entire event from your mind leaving a vague single image, sort of like a muggle photograph, but you won't remember any emotions or words that go with it".

"But if it's gone, then how do you know that there was something?"

"Because of that one image, Harry. You can come to your Pensieve and check what's in there. Memories are private images though, and the most important thing you MUST remember is to keep it safe. When you get to my age, you have so many jumbled memories that using a Pensieve can stop you forgetting things. But what if someone were to find it and steal it? It would be like you putting your memories of Sirius in to the Pensieve, and then if it was taken you might forget certain things about him. You could lose your closeness and it could, in effect, change the very person that you are".

Harry eyed the Pensieve warily. "It would be like manipulating them".

"Exactly" sighed Dumbledore taking another sip of his drinking chocolate. "Losing your memories could alter your whole perception of the world, or even a person. Which is why you should NEVER tell anyone that you are using one Harry. It is very important. Which is why we will keep it here in my office for now". Dumbledore leaned forward and placed his mug back on the table and looked at Harry, smiling reassuringly. "Now I believe you have something else that you wish to ask me. For that, I am afraid I must apologise too. As someone who knew your parents particularly well, I am afraid I tend to forget that there may be things that you don't know about them. You must not think for one minute, however, that we are trying to keep things from you; it's just human nature to assume everyone knows the same things".

"I found one of her books in the library" Harry stated just to make sure Dumbledore did know what Harry had found out.

"Your mother was one of the cleverest witches I have ever met. Even though her life was cut short she touched so many people, Harry. Everyone who knew her loved her very much; she had such a big heart. If there was something she wanted to change, she made everyone else want to change it too. She cared about **everyone** Harry, and that is so very rare! Miss Granger reminds me of her a lot; both of them having a keen interest in house elves!" Dumbledore chuckled to himself. "When your mother first came to Hogwarts she made it her first priority to find out absolutely everything about the wizarding world. She wanted to know everything at once. That's one of the characteristics your mother shared with your father … and with you. You are all impatient and do not like to think that you are missing out on something. Your mother could not understand why house elves could be so content; just like Miss Granger".

Harry smiled to himself, thinking. "Why has no one ever said that she worked here?"

"Sometimes it is just too hard to talk about the people we have loved and lost; even after many years".

Harry thought about Sirius and understood this.

"No one has deliberately kept this from you Harry; it's just that as time passes so many things happen. You get new things to dwell and ponder on. Your mother had a real zest for life; she wanted to experience everything, throughout school and after she was married. Lily and James travelled for a month after they finished their OWLs; poor Sirius was beside himself when he was left behind!" Dumbledore laughed. "Then they came back and did their auror training".

"What did Sirius do?" Harry asked realising he didn't know.

"Sirius rented a little house around the corner from James parents and set up a workshop. Remus stayed with him for a while and they'd lock themselves in Sirius' workshop and invent things. Sirius loved to make things; I've still got a very nice hat straightener upstairs that he gave me. It is very good at coordinating and tells you if your outfit doesn't look right!"

Harry laughed as Dumbledore smiled and then continued. "Your parents married and your mother started her first book. They both took their auror duties very seriously; your mother was outraged, as we all were, at how muggle-borns were being treated. They fought tirelessly against Voldemort for many years. But then the attacks on muggle-borns rocketed. I was desperately looking for a new teacher and it seemed like the perfect solution. She came here to help me with the school and the Order and your father knew that she would be safer. And for your mother, she knew she was still making a difference by being able to teach young witches and wizards how to defend themselves. Your mother, Harry, was the last proper Defence Against the dark Arts teacher that this school has had in many, many years. She worked here for four years and after she died a lot of people have said that the position is jinxed. She risked so much for the order; both of your parents did".

"Was she still working here when she was killed?"

"No" Dumbledore replied sadly. "I sent her away with your father soon after the Prophecy was revealed and the rest you know … Your mother was a very intelligent woman Harry, you could learn a lot by reading her books. The chapter on myself, I found particularly informative if not maybe a little exaggerated. Between you and me … it wasn't that big a battle!" Dumbledore smiled slyly and winked at Harry. "Now I realise you are eager to learn more about your parents but I think Madam Pince will be wanting her books back. I have taken the liberty of ordering you two new copies of your mother's books to read at your leisure. They should arrive in a couple of days. I have also ordered a third one, I'll keep the title a surprise for you but it was your mother's favourite book. If you read the book you will understand how she felt about life". Fawkes hooted in the corner and after Dumbledore had glanced at the bird briefly he turned back to Harry. "It is nearly time for your potions lesson; if you hurry you should just make it".

Harry rose out of his chair then stopped. "Thank you" he said but was unsure what else to say. Then as he was about to leave he realised something. "How did you know I had the book?"

"Ah well, I realised you would probably be too upset to sleep so I was keeping an eye on you. There are ways that you can be watched that even your fathers' invisibility cloak cannot fool. It is for your own safety though; I am not just spying on you! I saw that you were in the library and after you had been in there for a while I sent Mr Filch to have a look around in the hope that you might return to your dormitory and get some sleep".

"You were there, in the library?"

"No, I have other ways Harry. You'll learn them soon but for now you had better get going". Harry smiled, still feeling confused he slung his bag on to his back and headed to the door. He was just reaching for the large brass door handle when Dumbledore called him.

"Oh, and Harry…" Harry turned around to find Dumbledore had also risen and was looking at him over the top of his half moon spectacles. "I think it might be a good idea to apologise to Professor Snape for breaking his ankle. It might help in future lessons!" Harry smiled guiltily and made his way back down the staircase.


	11. Harry Potter and the Light of the Istari...

Chapter 11

The New Arrival

The next few days passed very quickly. Harry filled Ron and Hermione in on what Dumbledore had told him about his mother, but not about the Pensieve or what Snape had done. He continued to explain Snapes' ankle as a freak accident; that he'd simply pushed back really hard because he was tired and Snape had gone flying across the room; insisting he still didn't know what he'd done different though. Hermione was still dubious but Ron looked satisfied with the explanation and moved on to Hagrid's sudden departure so she couldn't question Harry anymore.

Hagrid, apparently, disappeared in to the Forbidden Forest halfway through their Care of Magical Creatures lesson, leaving Neville in charge of a particularly large Garuda bird. Hermione, however, seeing Neville panicking and trying to hold on to a bird that was two feet taller than him, took over and started reciting everything she knew about them until Professor Sprout arrived.

The atmosphere in Harry's next potions lesson was understandably tense to say the least. After a mumbled apology to Professor Snape who was pretending not to listen anyway, the rest of the lesson continued as normal.

Friday flew by with another morning of Defence lessons spent going over old spells and chatting. Herbology and Transfiguration flew by even quicker because everyone was chatting excitedly about the first Defence Club meeting that was happening that evening at half past six.

At twenty past six Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way from the Common Room to the Great Hall. Now clear of the house tables they had been sitting on an hour before; eating their dinner and anxiously watching the grains of sand passing through the hour glass.

There were twelve large, thin, cotton mats placed all around the edges of the Hall; each one a different colour. As more students came in to the centre of the Hall Harry, Ron and Hermione started to move over to the end wall where the teachers table usually was, so that they wouldn't be squashed in the middle.

"Wow" Harry jumped back instinctively as he went to walk over the purple mat. "Have you felt these mats; it's like trying to walk on a bed". He edged forwards again and tested the mat again with his right foot before wading in even further.

"Bewitched" Hermione announced knowingly. "Makes you wonder what we're going to be practising though doesn't it!"

Five minutes later and the teachers arrived. Professor Flitwick started distributing cushions with Hagrid, while Bill spoke to Professor Snape by the main doors. As Snape gave a dismissive glance around the Hall at all the students, Harry shrank back behind Ron. Thankfully for Harry, however, Professor Snape did not stay. Bill closed the doors with a flick of his wand and all the students fell silent as he made his way to the centre of the room.

"Everyone pick a mat and take a seat please" he called to the few students who were still standing around. Laughter erupted on the green mat as Colin Creevey tried to bounce his way in to the corner but fell over and narrowly missed Susan Bones. A red-faced, grinning Colin struggled back on to his feet before bowing to the rest of the laughing students then taking a seat on the mat.

"Okay" Bill continued, regaining everyone's attention. "Welcome to the first 'official' Defence Club meeting!" At which point he grinned in Harry's direction. "Now as you can see there are twelve different coloured mats placed around the room. There will be six students per mat and each teacher will monitor three mats each for the time being. I have taken the liberty of putting the groups together already so that you all get to practice with people of similar abilities. Today we are going to practice something new for all of you. It is on the NEWT syllabus but I thought we'd start it early. Professor Flitwick if you could assist me please".

As Professor Flitwick ambled his way to the centre of the hall, Harry couldn't help grinning as he heard Ron muttering 'if you could assist me please!' under his breathe. After conjuring up a large pile of cushions behind himself, Professor Flitwick raised his wand at Bill. As the two Professors nodded at each other, Flitwick bellowed "Expelliarmus!" At the same time however, Bill roared "relatio!" and a blue wall of light appeared in front of him, rebounding Professor Flitwick's curse right back at him, knocking him backwards on to his cushions. Bill moved forward and helped the tiny Charms teacher to his feet before continuing.

"Now, you've all had some practice with shield charms and now this rebound charm takes you one step further. With a basic shield charm you have no control over where a curse may rebound too, but with the charm we have just demonstrated, you can direct an attackers' curse right back at them". A whisper of approval swept throughout the Hall. "Before you all get too excited" Bill continued quickly, "it isn't as easy as it looks! You have to aim carefully at the same time you say the curse, with your wand up and before the curse is at least halfway between you and your attacker. It takes a lot of practice and concentration. Now as your other Defence teacher isn't here yet, we are just waiting for Professor Sprout to come and help us". Bill paused and twirled his wand elegantly in the air, making all the students gasp as silver smoke clouds appeared in the air above every mat and arranged themselves in to letters; each cloud forming the names of six students. "Now if you could please check the lists and move to the appropriate coloured mat and take a seat, you will be given more instructions shortly. Oh and please remember your colours as you will be staying in these groups for the rest of the term" he finished.

Students chatted excitedly as they moved around the hall to join their groups and Harry was happy to see he was still with Ron and Hermione. Following the crowd, they made their way across the hall to the blue mat to join Ginny, Neville and Luna.

"All we need now is Cho, Dean and Ernie and we've got most of the DA" Ron laughed.

"That's what Professor Dumbledore thought" Bill added, strolling up behind them. "He particularly requested you six stay together! After last term I think he wants to keep you all in one place!" he laughed.

"Anymore news on the new Professor?" Ron enquired hopefully, trying to catch his brother off guard hoping he would slip up.

"Patience" Bill laughed. "Two more days and you'll find out little brother. Ah Professor Sprout is here. I'll be right back".

"You'd think having a brother as a teacher would have some perks wouldn't you" Ron announced grumpily as Bill made his way to the hall doors. "What are you smirking at?" he asked Hermione irritably as he caught sight of her grinning.

"Nothing!" she smiled innocently.

Harry jumped in before Ron could continue. "Don't forget Quidditch practise tomorrow Ginny".

"How could she forget" yawned Hermione after giving Ron a playful punch. "It's all you and Ron talk about".

"Don't worry I haven't forgotten" Ginny laughed.

"Good" Harry replied giving Hermione a filthy look. "I've just had a fixtures sheet today and our first match is against Hufflepuff in two weeks so we need to get some strategy practise in …"

Before Harry could continue however, Bill returned; split them in to twos and left them instructions to take it in turns practising in pairs alternately around the mat. Ron was not very happy to be paired with Neville; while Hermione practised with Luna and Harry with Ginny.

The charm was a lot harder than it looked and every now and then Bill would come around giving tips. The complete surprise however, was that on his first attempt, Neville managed to rebound Ron's twitchy ear's hex right back at him sending him in to a scratching frenzy. His jubilation didn't last long, however, as on his second attempt he missed Ron completely and deflected a curse straight at Professor Sprout, sending her bouncing over the pink mat.

After half an hour, whilst they weren't perfect Harry did at least think they were all starting to get some control with their aim. It was Harry's turn to practise again and he stood concentrating very hard, trying to remember all the things Bill told them. Watching Ginny he tried to anticipate when she would raise her wand; though he couldn't help thinking to himself that if it took this much concentration when you knew a curse was going to be fired at you, then he'd stand no chance of doing it if he were surprised. He mentioned this to Ginny and she admitted that she had just been thinking the exact same thing so they decided to try speeding up the hexes to give Harry a little less time to prepare himself.

Harry was surprised to find that his aim was a little better with less time to worry about where he was pointing. Ginny kept on going faster and Harry was astonished at how many different curses she knew and how many he had never heard of before. But then he figured she had come from a wizard family so was bound to know more than him, especially with Fred and George as brothers. All the same, it was a bit disconcerting though.

Ginny kept going, firing more and more and it took a couple of minutes for Harry to realise that he was edging towards the end of the mat.

"Uh … Ginny I think we need to stop a minute and move back in" but Ginny didn't stop and as Harry looked down to check his footing, he got hit square in the chest by Ginny's last curse. Harry flew backwards through the air but luckily landed on the next mat. As he sat up rubbing the burning patch on his chest he was shocked to see Ginny was glaring at him. Hermione had shouted as she saw what was about to happen and now everybody was craning around to see what had happened.

"Everyone wands down" Bill bellowed as he and Hagrid rushed over to check on Harry.

"I'm fine" Harry insisted struggling to stand up as Ginny came over.

"I'm am so sorry Harry! I didn't see you look away. Are you sure that you aren't hurt?"

Harry eyed Ginny warily as he rubbed his sore chest but there was not a trace of the anger he'd seen a moment ago, she just looked incredibly upset. "I am so sorry" she repeated again and again.

"I'm okay Ginny, really" Harry replied. "Besides, it was my idea to try it faster; not such a great idea after all!" he grinned sheepishly.

"Okay I think we've done enough for today" Bill announced. "If you get a chance go and look up rebound charms in the library for next week but homework is not essential as I know you have got a lot of other things to be doing. I'll see you all in class".

With a swish of his wand Professor Flitwick cleared the hall of mats and cushions and the students found themselves stood on the stone floor. Making their way in to the Entrance Hall Ginny continued to apologise but Harry just laughed it off insisting they could have done with those mats in their DA meetings.

The majority of Saturday was spent on the Quidditch pitch training for the next game. As Harry flew high up in the air watching the new formation the team was learning, he also caught a glimpse of the aurors patrolling around the edge of the school grounds in pairs. One, with very bright blue hair gave Harry a wave and even from a distance Harry knew it was Tonks; who else would have chosen hair that colour.

In the stands Hermione was reading a book about goblin history; much to Ron's obvious disgust. He complained when she came to watch and tried to give tips but got more annoyed if she didn't pay attention. A few rows away from Hermione, Bill sat talking to Fleur Delacour. Fleur was up visiting Bill for the weekend as they had been dating for a while now. When they had first come down to the pitch Harry had heard her filling Bill in on all the goings on in Gringotts, where they had both worked before Bill came to teach. By the sounds of it there were quite a few disagreements going on at Gringotts between different goblins but Harry didn't recognise any names and didn't hear anything specific about the disputes. He knew from his past encounters that Goblins weren't the most amenable of creatures so it may or may not have been related to Dumbledore's meetings with them.

Bill was supervising their practise because Professor Dumbledore wanted all outdoor activities monitored by at least one adult. There were still a lot of attacks happening in the muggle world and a lot of parents had been bombarding the head master with owls questioning security at Hogwarts and wondering whether their children would be safer at home. Every now and then Bill would look up and shout some tips up at Ron but Ron was not very happy about it. Harry could see that he was taking it as criticism rather than help, same as he had with Hermione, but then Hermione had never really played Quidditch. Ron had always felt intimidated by his brothers and as some of the tips were very useful Harry decided to try and use them next time but phrasing them differently so that Ron hopefully wouldn't notice.

Harry woke up early on Sunday morning; unsettled by a nightmare about a potions exam and Professor Snape; he'd been having a lot of them lately and they almost always involved Harry turning in to someone else. The first couple of times he had turned in to Voldemort like in his vision at Grimmauld Place but then he turned in to a few other people like Lucius Malfoy and Molly Weasley. He would have been concerned that it was Voldemort trying to get in to his head again but for the fact that Snape would turn in to other people too and sometimes ridiculous things would come out of their wands like flowers or chocolate syrup when they fired a spell. What had unnerved him this time however, was not the presence of Snape but the fact that on casting a hex at him, Snape turned in to Sirius and hit square on the chest fell backwards through a black veil. They were back in the Department of Mysteries again.

For a minute Harry lay gazing up at the ceiling getting his breathing back to normal and wondering how on earth he expected to pass NEWT level Potions let alone get the grade he needed to become an auror, when he heard a soft whimpering coming from the other side of the dormitory. Crawling to the end of his bed; he gently pulled apart the red velvet curtains ever so slightly, so that he could see across the room. It was still fairly dark but Harry could just make out the blanket covered bodies in the other beds and saw that the noise was coming from Neville's. Harry could see that Neville's hand was draped over the edge of the bed, completely still, and he looked to be asleep.

"Neville?" Harry whispered. "Are you okay?". There was no reply and Neville did not move, but the whimpering had stopped so Harry crawled back up in to his own bed and decided to try and get a couple more hours sleep.

Eleven o'clock found Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at the table by the window in the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione was flicking through a copy of 'The Sunday Prophet' while Harry and Ron hastily tried to catch up on their Herbology and Potions homework. Though Harry would never actually admit it, Hermione may have been right in her earlier lecture that they had been spending too much time on Quidditch plans.

Staring at a very old dusty text book, Harry's mind began to wander, picturing Snape sat at his desk in his dungeon, writing on a very long piece of parchment with a peacock feathered quill. Every now and then stopping to ponder thoughtfully before he continued writing once again. As Harry wandered closer green vines slithered silently along the floor, effortlessly winding around table legs and fast approaching the potions master's desk. Harry grinned to himself as he pictured in his mind the vines rising up suddenly off the floor and twisting themselves around Snape's throat, sending him crashing to the floor. Edging even closer in to the room Harry gazed eagerly ahead but just as it was about to happen Snape's head shot up and looked right at Harry as he reached for his wand at the same time. As Snape was rising from his chair, head twisting, looking all around the room, his gaze came straight back to Harry just as a book slammed loudly and the Gryffindor common room came rushing back in to view and Harry's herbology text book had a Hermione-shaped handprint on the dusty front cover.

"You are never going to catch up if you keep drifting off … focus!" Hermione had put her newspaper to one side and was looking disapprovingly at Harry.

"Oh you are in for it now!" Ron laughed, quill still writing as he tried to look busy.

"I can't concentrate" Harry groaned trying to get his breathing back to normal. Snape looking right at him had really unnerved him, even if it was just a daydream though it seemed different to the dreams he had at night. He threw his quill down on the table in frustration. "I'm going to go for a walk".

"Oh, hang on I'll come with you" Ron decided as Harry stood up.

"Oh no you don't Ron Weasley, you are going to finish that essay. I promised your mother I'd make sure you did your homework".

"And I suppose you are going to tell her I'm slacking then!" Ron replied folding his arms indignantly and glaring at her.

"No!" Hermione grinned cunningly "but if you don't finish it, you and I will not be going for our own little walk later!"

As a huge grin spread over Ron's face he sat back down and picked up his quill. "Sorry mate, you're on your own!"

The hallways were pretty busy for a Sunday so Harry headed up to the owlery to see Hedwig, hoping for a bit of peace and quiet. As soon as he walked in, however, he saw that he was out of luck as Luna Lovegood was perched over by the window busy writing a letter. Harry hesitated wondering whether he still had time to head back down the steps but she looked up and gave him a big smile. "Harry! Are you looking for me?"

"Uh, no Luna" Harry muttered "just popping up to see Hedwig".

"Ah right … okay then. I'm just writing a letter" she said turning a misty gaze back to the parchment in front of her.

"Oh … who to?" Harry asked edging his way further in to the room and finding Hedwig. He pulled some bacon rind out of his pocket to give her that he had saved from breakfast.

"I haven't decided yet" Luna replied happily, not looking up from her letter.

Only Luna, Harry chuckled to himself, could spend an morning writing letters to no one in particular.

As he wandered over to the window next to Luna and looked out, Harry heard shouts echo up from the driveway. Looking down he saw a horseless carriage with three battered trunks on the top, come pelting up the school drive, gravel flying and leaving a grey mist in its wake. Two patrolling aurors, in black hooded cloaks, waved at the carriage as it passed before it disappeared from Harry's view.

"What the …" Harry started but stopping as a bemused Luna gazed up at him. "It …" but he stopped again, looked at Luna then looked back out of the window. He was sure he recognised the etchings on the top of one of the trunks but it couldn't be.

Without a word he turned and took off down the stairs; leaving Luna tutting at his rudeness and muttering to herself "… and they think I'm weird!"

Harry pelted down the corridors and had a very near nasty collision with a small Slytherin first year but he carried on going. Pounding down the marble staircase in to the entrance hall Harry grinned as he saw Dumbledore and Mcgonagall greeting the mystery guest.

"Well it didn't take you long!" Remus Lupin, in brand new black professors robes grinned at him. "Well a hello would be polite!"

Harry was half wanting to run forward and hug Lupin but was also half unsure whether he should be so friendly with so many other students around, and then there was the fact that he was hardly a child anymore. The decision was made for him however, when a cloaked figure swept forward from Harry's right and stood next to Dumbledore. Professor Snape looked positively evil and after a quick sneer at Lupin's new robes turned on Harry.

"Where have you been this last hour?" he growled menacingly.

"The common room and the owlery" Harry tried to say assuredly looking Snape straight in the eye. He wasn't exactly lying but with his daydream he did feel a bit edgy.

"Severus is this really necessary" Professor Mcgonagall asked wearily.

"Someone was in my dungeon" Snape snapped. Harry felt his stomach drop to the floor. It was a daydream, he imagined it, he was sure. But the look at the end … a chill ran down his spine. He looked up uncertainly to see Professor Dumbledore gazing at him.

Their eyes linked for a second and then Dumbledore turned to Professor Snape. "Did you not say you would be in your dungeon all afternoon marking homework?" he asked casually.

"I …" Snape paused then cleared his throat. "I have been" he replied as Professor Mcgonagall looked at him completely bewildered. "But if you were there then you would have seen someone". Snape glowered at her then at Harry.

"Well this doesn't seem particularly urgent Severus, but as you never actually saw anyone then I think we can let Harry go for now!" Dumbledore turned back to face Harry.

"Harry maybe you can help Professor Lupin take his belongings up to his office so that he can settle in".

Harry rushed forward to the trunks, grateful for an excuse to get away from Snape. "I've got them" Lupin said merrily smirking at Snape and taking out his wand muttered "mobulus". The trunks drifted up off the floor and stood ready waiting for the next command. "You'd better come with me though" he said winking once at Harry "just in case I get lost!"

Harry and Lupin chatted all the way to his office about what Remus had been up to since Harry had come back to Hogwarts. Harry was kicking himself that he hadn't linked up all the clues sooner and knew now why Hermione had been smirking all the time. She of course would have noticed the last few nights of full moons, though Lupin had also been busy doing a few things for the Order in London that he wasn't allowed to tell Harry about. He was still taking his potions and whilst it could still be a risk him being at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had promised a few extra security measures to ensure that no one got harmed.

"Not that I'm not expecting another flurry of Owls as soon as parents find out I'm back again, but Dumbledore insisted that I was needed here, so … here I am".

Unlocking his office door with a swish of his wand, Lupin gestured for Harry to go in first. It was the same office that he had used last time he taught at Hogwarts though the room was a little more dusty; but a few empty glass tanks sat waiting on the shelves where Dolores Umbridge's porcelain cats had sat the year before. Lowering the trunks on to the floor Lupin sighed happily and gazed round the room then grinned at Harry "feel like helping me unpack?"

Ten minutes later and they were kneeling on the floor pulling books and magical devices out of one of the open trunks. Lupin had a story for each of the devices and most of them included James or Sirius. Harry laughed loudly at one particular story involving his father, a woman called Florence and half a dozen other trainee aurors.

It was an undercover exercise towards the end of their initial training and they had to pass to go on to the next level, Lupin explained chuckling. "They were in a pub in Betws-y-Coed, in Wales, and your father was supposed to talk to this Florence to find out information about her brother, discreetly of course. Well … a few other agents were positioned around the pub in case anything nasty happened, as it was a real lead on a death eater group (they were a bit stretched for aurors at the time so lower priority cases were sometimes used for training). Your father was sat at the bar, casually chatting to her in his best attempt at a strong welsh accent, when one of the other trainees wandered past just as your father flicked his cloak backwards. Albert, the trainee, got his foot caught in the cloak and went flying forwards into this big Welsh man, taking James flying backwards off his stool clutching the cloak tight around his throat with his feet in the air, both of them landing in a heap and setting of their auror alarms, which is what this is".

Harry looked at the thin silver tube grinning, it just looked like a small wand.

"The thing about these …" Lupin continued, "is that they are incredibly loud, like a high pitched siren and they flash red when they go off. The idea being that any auror within ten miles will either hear it go off or their own alarm will pick up the signal and lead them to it. So when James and Albert's went off about thirty aurors came pelting in to the pub from a nearby surveillance. Needless to say they weren't very popular and Florence disappeared for a while".

Lupin got up and set the device on the shelf by the door. Walking back to another open trunk on his desk, he leant over it and peered at the contents inside.

"Ahh" he said quietly reaching down in to the trunk and pulled out a light blue velvet box and set it down in front of him. He sat in his chair and looked up at Harry sadly.

"This, I believe, belongs to you". He opened the box and pulled out one of the two dark blue clothes that were in side, passing it over to Harry.

Harry carefully unwrapped it and found the small, square mirror that Sirius had given him the year before.

"You fixed it!" Harry said running his finger over the no longer cracked glass and turning it over, saw that Sirius' message was gone off the back.

"I hope you don't mind" Lupin answered, watching Harry staring at the object in his hands. "I found it when I was packing your things for you at your Aunt and Uncle's house. It seemed a shame to leave it as it was, it holds so many memories, so I cleaned it up and repaired it".

Harry looked up to see Lupin looking back in to the blue velvet box at the remaining blue cloth, but he didn't touch it. "Sirius made them ,you know, the mirrors. The one you have there was your fathers. We each had one, the mauraders, to keep in contact when we were apart over the holidays or in different parts of the school. Sirius was good at making things" Lupin laughed. "He made a lot of stuff that got us in to trouble and would definitely have given Fred and George Weasley a run for their money!"

"Messer's Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs" Harry said quietly.

Lupin laughed again. "Well that little detail was actually my idea … our catchphrase so to speak. Sirius chose to make them as mirrors though, he used to spend a lot of his time looking at himself back then!"

"He said that it was a two-way mirror … that I could use it to speak to him. He didn't say there were three" Harry muttered. "But last year when I was trying to find him … I forgot about it … if I had remembered then … he might still be here".

"Harry what happened was not your fault, he may not have answered even if you had … sometimes no matter what you do, if something is meant to be then there is no way that you can stop it, magic or no magic. Besides it was probably for the best that you didn't use the mirror. Sirius wasn't exactly telling the truth when he said they were two-way and there wasn't just three … there were four. Your father's, Sirius', mine and Peter's. It was irresponsible of Sirius not to warn you. I still have mine so it was, and still is, possible that Peter may have his". Lupin leant forward and lifted the other piece of dark blue cloth out of the box and revealed his own square-shaped mirror. "It is possible to speak to just one person but you can also call the other three mirrors as well. If you had asked specifically for Sirius then you may have been okay but if Peter had told Lord Voldemort about the mirror then it is possible that they could have been altered to spy on what you were saying, or tampered with so that you thought you were speaking to Sirius but weren't; especially with Kreacher being involved with them. I'm showing you these now because I need you to understand … you are in so much danger Harry and you have to be careful of everything and everyone. The death eaters are very active at the moment and you must be on your guard. You can't be doing anything daft like you used too because it is too risky, especially if you have your friends with you. Don't look so despondent Harry, I'm not trying to alarm you I just need you to understand".

"I understand" Harry said angrily. "I understand that everyone I care about is going to get hurt because of me and there's not one thing I can do to stop it because it is never going to end until I'm dead and it would be so much easier if people just came out and said it. I'd be better off out of here on my own, well you all would be anyway".

For a second Lupin looked shocked and Harry knew he had said too much, he'd been thinking it for a while but never actually come out and said it, he had shocked himself as well as Remus. Lupin's shock faded and for probably the first time Harry saw that Lupin was angry with him.

"I know sometimes we may treat you like a child and sometimes we treat you like an adult, maybe we expect too much of you, but do you have any idea of what some of us have sacrificed to help protect you? This war has been going since before you were born and if we don't succeed then it will continue long after we are all gone. It is not all about you; stop wallowing! Your mother died so you could live and you wont if all you do is sulk. You are not the only person to have lost people you care about. Whether you are here or not every single witch and wizard in this school is at risk from Dark Magic as a whole not just Voldemort. This whole war is much bigger than one person, our whole magical world is at risk".

Lupin stopped to catch his breathe, anger abating and as his cheeks turned bright red he looked sadly at Harry. "I'm sorry … I didn't mean to be so harsh. It just … gets a bit much sometimes being the only one left, they were all I had and I don't want that for you. Look closer at your mirror".

Harry looked down to the small square mirror still clutched in his hand.

"The top right corner" Lupin hinted also picking up his own.

Harry squinted but he could just make it out. "It's a stag! I never noticed it before!"

"That's because it was so dirty; like I said I cleaned it up. See mine has one too!"

Lupin pushed his own mirror across the table towards Harry and looking down Harry could see a small orb etched in the top corner. Pulling it back across the table Lupin smiled to himself. "Maybe I'm not the only marauder left now! I will keep mine on me always Harry, same as you can if you can keep it concealed from everyone. Don't even tell Ron and Hermione about it. We should keep them just in case of an absolute emergency and have a codeword so we know it is definitely us; something unrelated to us so that no one can guess. We need to pick one now and never mention it again".

"How about Errol?" Harry suggested, referring to the Weasleys ancient, accident prone owl.

"Yes … that's good; Errol it is! But remember you must keep the mirror hidden. If anyone were to find it, it might be taken from you. People are very nervous about bewitched items, especially these days with all the attacks happening". Lupin chuckled lightly "quite a few of Sirius' inventions got confiscated when we were in school! Including that mirror you had for your birthday!"

"The Mirror of Reflection" Harry smiled.

"Of course Sirius couldn't admit that he had made them so they got taken, usually be Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore knew of course, I think that's why he rescued quite a few. He was fascinated by them. He knew they were harmless but he kept an eye on us all the same!"

"Like Professor Mcgonagall?" Harry smirked to see if Lupin knew how she'd been watching him at Privet Drive and Remus grinned back at him.

"You've had some use out of it already then" he laughed.

"Mrs Figg showed up green" Harry started "so did Aunt Petunia". Remus looked around nervously.

"Arabella showed green because she's what most people would call a squib. Not very polite if you ask me though. You have heard of them haven't you?" Harry nodded.

"Well she's a witch but has no real magical ability, though she more than makes up for it" he laughed. "I don't know about your Aunt though. She's definitely not a witch, but maybe she showed up on the mirror because there is a hint of something magic in her blood because of Lily. I'm really not sure about that one Harry. You should ask Professor Dumbledore. All I really know about your Aunt is from what Lily told me about her. They never really got on, Lily said Petunia was always nasty to her and called her a freak. Made her life a misery but personally I think she may have just been jealous. Has your Aunt ever spoken to you about your mother?"

"No not really. I'm not allowed to mention anything to do with magic at their house or do any magic. When I first found out about being a wizard they called Mum a freak and Dad a waster. They don't like anything 'abnormal'. They tend to just leave me alone unless they want something done that they can't be bothered doing themselves". Lupin nodded glumly.

"Aunt Petunia did mention her once though, this summer, when I got my results. Said Mum would have been proud of me. Only nice thing she has ever said to me".

"People will always block out things they are scared off Harry; it's human nature, doesn't matter whether you are a muggle or a wizard. I suppose it's why people keep secrets, some memories are harder to face up to than others so its easier to bury them and not tell a sole. Maybe one day she will be able tell you about your mother, things that we can't, that maybe only she knows. Everyone has their secrets".

"I seem to be finding them out all the time" Harry muttered.

"Ah the books" Lupin smiled. "Dumbledore told me you found them. That wasn't a secret Harry its just like I said, sometimes its hard to face up to certain memories and everyone loved your mother so much. Sometimes its easier to try and not to think about the past. I think a lot of people tend to stay away from topics that make them uncomfortable and death is certainly one of them. We just forget that maybe in doing so that we unwittingly might hurt you. It's all to easy to assume that everyone else knows all the things you know. She taught Bill and Charlie you know".

"Really!" Harry grinned "They never said".

"She was very intelligent, your mother, people often wondered what she saw in James" Lupin laughed. "How's your Quidditch practice going by the way? Can't wait to come and watch".

"First match is soon" Harry smiled "I think we'll be ready!"

"Good, Minerva and I have a little wager with Professor Sprout that I can't really afford to loose!"

They continued unpacking and until it was time to go down to the Great Hall for dinner. They talked about the Defence Club and Lupin told Harry that it had been Dumbledore's idea to have Harry help with the lower years to give him some more responsibility of his own as Ron and Hermione were prefects.

When they walked in to the Great Hall together there were a lot of shocked glances though the majority changed to happy ones after a few seconds; a lot of people still remembered Lupin's classes from the last time he taught at Hogwarts. A few people in the lower years looked a bit nervous, having probably heard from others about Lupin being a werewolf and not having been taught by him yet. Quite a few of the Slytherins, however, looked positively evil and were definitely not happy; Malfoy in particular.

Taking a seat between Professor Mcgonagall and Bill, a few words from Dumbledore formally introduced Remus as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and everyone got back to their whispered conversations. Harry was amused to see quite a few disdainful sideway glances from Snape but Harry smiled knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Later that night settling down in his dormitory, Harry felt happier knowing that Lupin was there and that maybe this year might not be as bad as he thought it would be. Pyjamas on Harry went and sat in the window waiting for Ron to finish throwing his belongings all over the place as he searched his trunk for his transfiguration text book that he would need the next day. Up above stars twinkled in a clear night sky, while down below two aurors passed down the path leaving the trail on the side of the forest and headed down towards Hagrid's hut, wands dimly lighting their way.

Harry was just about to turn round when he saw an unmistakable cloaked figure moving swiftly down from the direction of the Entrance Hall and heading straight in to the Forbidden Forrest. The aurors carried on walking not noticing the movement behind them. Harry leaned further forward a bit trying to peer through the darkness of the outer trees but he could see nothing. That was the second time he had seen Professor Dumbledore creeping down to the forest this week in the dark, and this time it was pretty obvious that he hadn't wanted to be seen. Wondering what his headmaster could possibly be up to, Harry didn't say a word to the others. He just climbed in to bed, still thinking, as Ron blew out the light having now found his textbook and got in to bed himself.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Monday evening came round fast and Harry anxiously made his way to the Great Hall to help with the lower years Defence Club. He found that it was organised pretty much the same as his had been, with six students to a coloured mat and Harry was given two mats to watch over. Among his twelve students for the year were three Gryffindors; Amelia Diggle, Gabby Finnegan and Mark Evans. All twelve students looked nervously at Harry when they saw that he'd be watching them, particularly Mark.

After the students were given some instructions and a demonstration from Bill and Lupin of a shield charm and then a summoning charm; Harry was left to himself and his charges. At first all the students just stood and watched Harry silently, waiting for instructions and Harry thought to himself that there was no way when he was their age that he was that timid.

"Well off you go then, start with the summoning charm" he said smiling encouragingly. The charms that they were starting with were charms that Harry had used many times and had gotten him out of quite a few tricky situations so he was quite happy to give pointers.

The results of the twelve of them trying to summon a cushion were hysterical and Harry had to try very hard not to laugh. In twos they then had to take it in turns summoning the cushion and then repelling it at their partner who had to deflect it with a shield charm. Amelia Diggle managed to send hers flying in to Selene Aversham on the next mat creating a domino effect as all the students on that mat toppled over one by one. Only Gabby Finnegan actually managed it successfully on her first attempt, and Harry could tell she was definitely going to be another Hermione.

As Harry was stood watching Rose Zeller on his blue mat, he heard a voice grumbling behind him. As he turned round he heard Louis Bennett complaining to Mark Evans that as hard as these charms were, there was no way they'd be of any use against a gang of deatheaters or Voldemort; though he only got halfway through saying Voldemorts' name as he saw Harry was looking at him.

"Right everyone come over here" Harry said to his twelve students and they all trotted over nervously and stood around him in a semi circle.

"Now all through school you are going to get shown hundreds of spells and taught how to use them; some will be easy and some will be hard. You may think that some of the stuff is so simple and mundane and isn't worth learning; you may be itching to get on to the hard, complicated ones and that some of the spells you'll be taught here are nothing to do with defence but I'm telling you straight … in a panic or if you get cornered it will only be the simplest spells that you remember".

At which point Louis Bennett snorted disbelievingly. "Like we're going to knock a deatheater out with a cushion!"

"Maybe not" Harry replied "But you can throw a chair at them to get away, or summon a broom"

"Like your triwizard task" Gabby added enthusiastically "Seamus told me all about it; was the dragon really fifty feet tall?"

"No" Harry laughed "but the best advice I can give you is this … it doesn't matter how many charms or curses you learn; the most important thing you can teach yourselves is how to deal with fear. Its fear that'll make you panic and forget things, and its fear that makes you freeze. Just remember that no one is invincible; not me, not any of you and not Voldemort".

"Yeah but you fought him four times now and you're still here" Selene pointed out.

"But not because of my own magic skills. All those times I survived because of luck and the people around me. Don't think for a second that I managed it on my own because I didn't. When I was a baby I survived because my mum died, all the other times I had help from my friends, Dumbledore and the Order".

Each of the students stood silently for a moment, contemplating what Harry had said; a few looked disappointed and Louis in particular still looked unconvinced. Harry sighed to himself as he always seemed to get this reaction when he told people the truth; no one seemed to believe that he wasn't the next 'Great' Dumbledore.

Looking round Harry noticed that the next two mats and Lupin had also been listening to him.

"Okay people … I think we have done enough for today!" Lupin called out loudly and clapping his hands together all the cushions that were mid-air, tumbled down on to the mats.

As the students scrambled off their mats and made their way out of the Great Hall, Harry waved his wand and summoned all the cushions off his mats into one pile while Lupin and Bill stood by the doors speaking to the students as they exited.

Harry made his way over to them as the last of the students started heading up the marble staircase to their common rooms.

"Shattering the illusions of the young and innocent I hear!" Bill grinned at Harry.

"Nothing wrong with giving them a more realistic version of events … they have to be prepared, they have to know how dangerous things are … toughen them up a bit" Harry shrugged

"Sometimes innocence is a good thing … stops you doing silly things" Lupin smiled.

"Maybe, maybe not" Harry replied thinking about all the shocks he'd had when he'd learnt about what had really happened to his parents over the years. If he hadn't have been put with the Dursleys' and brought up as a muggle he might have been better prepared when he came to Hogwarts.

"Right!" Bill said cheerfully "I'm off to Hogsmeade for a drink, are you coming Remus … I know a certain person is going to be there tonight". Harry looked at Bill curiously as Bill winked at Lupin, then he turned to look at Lupin who had gone bright red.

"Well … I suppose one drink wouldn't hurt!" Lupin stuttered, nervously twirling his wand.

"What have I missed?" Harry grinned watching Lupin squirm.

"Nothing … absolutely NOTHING!" Lupin stated giving Bill a distinctly disgruntled look.

"Well I'd better head back to Gryffindor Tower then" Harry smirked as he walked past Lupin, wondering who Bill had been referring to.

"See you first thing Harry!" Bill called happily at which Lupin turned and looked at him warily.

Two weeks flew by and the first Quidditch match against Hufflepuff arrived. Harry and Ron had been unable to get any information out of Bill about Lupin's crush, but more annoyingly it appeared Hermione knew but wouldn't reveal anything either. So they had thrown themselves in to training instead.

Sitting in the Great Hall, Harry tried to force down some toast as everyone around him chatted about the new teams. The whole team was excited and no one felt like eating much breakfast so they went back to Gryffindor Tower to get their things and then started to make their way down to the Quidditch stadium.

As they headed down the stairs into the Entrance Hall, however, they were greeted by a huge crowd as it seemed everyone else was eager to get to the stadium for the first match as well. What surprised Harry however was seeing Professor Trelawney stood near the door with Firenze, the centaur. Both teachers were now teaching Divination and from what Harry had heard from Parvarti Patil, Professor Trelawney was not happy about it at all; and which was perfectly clear as Trelawney kept giving annoyed, irritated glances to the blond, palamino centaur on her right.

"Are you coming Sybil?" Professor Mcgonagall asked agitated "Or are you going to hover here for the whole afternoon. It's perfectly safe you know; Professor Dumbledore is already there!"

"Maybe she's had a vision she's going to get hit by a bludger" Ron grinned as they got closer.

"As it flies threw your hoop, you mean" Hermione added smirking at which Ron's grin turned quickly to a glare.

"Knock it off" Ginny muttered as Professor Trelawney teetered on high bright green shoes and peered out through the door whilst pushing her glasses back up her nose. "No my dear Minerva I don't think so. I cannot be among crowds; too many people to read, too many dark thoughts and doomed spirits!"

As they passed by Harry distinctly heard Professor Mcgonagall snort fairly loudly but her expression never changed. "Yes well you stay then but I must get going and take my seat".

"I wonder if Firenze is coming" Ginny asked peering round to look back up the path.

"I doubt it" Hermione replied. "He doesn't leave the school these days; I suppose its not safe for him anymore".

"Sad though isn't it that the others all turned on him, just because he came to help us" Ron added.

"Now, now" Professor Mcgonagalls voice came from behind them as they reached the wooden entrance to the Quidditch stadium. "Gloomy talk is not going to win Gryffindor this match; I want happy thoughts!" she said clapping her hands enthusiastically.

"Yes Professor" Harry replied and as Mcgonagall left them to make her way to her place in the stands, Ron peered around and muttered "I'll have some of whatever she's been drinking!"

Harry laughed and turned to make his way down to the changing rooms with Ron and Ginny while Hermione and Neville followed their Head of House up the stairs.

The first half of the match went incredibly well. At half time Gryffindor were eighty points up with Ginny having scored sixty points all on her own and Ron was doing particularly well at stopping all the Hufflepuff chasers attempts at scoring so far; the other house really was taking a hammering. It was three minutes in to the second half that all the students lost concentration on the match.

As Erin Dowill was streaking towards the Hufflepuff goalkeeper, Quaffle under her arm and dodging bludgers, a loud piercing siren went off and from the air Harry could see little red flashes coming from the pockets of the aurors that were patrolling inside the stadium and the outside. It took him a few seconds to click what he was seeing as he watched all the aurors save ten, go pelting down the driveway and out through the school gates. The remaining aurors positioned themselves around the stadium though two went out in to the grounds.

Everyone had stopped and had been watching the events on the ground. A few students were already heading for the steps, while others shuffled round unsure of what to do. Harry of course realised that none of the other students would have known what the alarm was or the red light.

Almost immediately after the large group of aurors had left, Professor Mcgonagall amplified her voice and told all the students to remain calm and stay where they were. Harry looked and saw that Professor Dumbledore was no longer in his seat. As Mcgonagall assured everyone there was no problem at Hogwarts and that the match would resume momentarily, Harry saw Professor Dumbledore emerge at the gates of the stadium with Professor Snape. They spoke briefly with the auror guarding the gates, and after a brief glance up at Professor Mcgonagalls stand, Dumbledore turned and swiftly made his way down the drive, pursued closely by Professor Snape.

The alarms had made everyone nervous and as the game continued there were quite a few clumsy passes as the players were watching for events on the ground as well as in the air. Gryffindor had its first Quidditch victory of the season however and in the end, beat Hufflepuff by 210 points to 90. As the Gryffindor team was doing a celebratory lap around the stadium, however, a loud voice boomed out over the shouts of the crowd.

"Would all students please return to their common rooms immediately. Do not rush there is no need for panic. Players if you could go straight back as well, you will all be informed of events on your return". Harry looked round and saw Professor Dumbledore standing next to Mcgonagall in the Gryffindor stand. He had quietened his voice and was now whispering something to her.

Hermione met them by the gate as they queued to make their way back up to the castle. Usually they made their way back up to the castle to cheers and backslaps but this time students wandered up whispering in hushed voices in little huddles, staring at the aurors that lined the pathway back up to the school.

Harry didn't say much but he noticed that a few looked a bit upset and a few had rips in their robes and hazy eyes. He also noticed Ginny a bit further up talking to Professor Snape a little way from the Entrance Hall door.

As Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna made their way in to the Entrance Hall Professor Mcgonagall stepped in front of them and took them to one side. "Harry … Neville" she said sombrely trying very hard to look composed and Harry panicked; something was wrong. Where was Lupin? Harry hadn't seen him at the match.

"You are both to come to Professor Dumbledore's office immediately; the rest of you return to the common room and I will be with you shortly".

Walking down the corridor that lead to the stairs to Dumbledores office, Harry felt physically sick. Professor Mcgonagall had refused to tell them another word and walked silently in front of them. Looking at Neville, Harry could see that he too was just as worried as Harry was and had gone a spectacularly pale shade of white.

The air was heavy as they passed the statue and rose up the winding staircase and on reaching the landing at the top Professor Mcgonagall directed Neville to take a seat on a small wooden chair that had been placed to one side of the large oak door.

Hesitantly Harry followed Professor Mcgonagall in to Dumbledore's office and relief rushed through him as Lupin turned around from the fireplace to face him as they entered. From the purple armchair Professor Dumbledore raised his wand to close the door that Harry had left open and then called him to take a seat opposite him whilst Remus remained standing at Dumbledore's side.

"I am afraid I have some unfortunate news for you Harry but I can not go in to great detail at the moment. Remus will be able to tell you more on your way back to the common room as I must speak with Mr Longbottom. Now as you are aware there was a bit of a commotion at the Quidditch match earlier when some of the aurors were called away". Harry nodded but said nothing.

"Well they were called away because of a number of attacks today on muggle and magic families" Dumbledore paused and removing his glasses he wiped them on his robes before replacing them and continuing. "Unfortunately your Aunt and cousin were one of the targets today though they are safe and well so there is no need to panic".

Confused Harry looked round at each of the Professors faces unsure how he was supposed to react. He had spent most of his life hating the Dursleys with a vengeance and had been looking forward to the day that he was free from having to live with them but all the same they were family and he supposed he should be worried for them.

"What happened?" Harry asked "Why them?"

"I am afraid I am going to have to leave your questions with Remus Harry as I must speak to Mr Longbottom now".

"Come Harry" Lupin said walking forward, gesturing for Harry to get up before Harry could ask about why Neville was called too. "I'll explain the rest on the way".

Leaving Dumbledores' office, Harry smiled weakily at Neville as he and Lupin passed, sensing that maybe his was not the only family attacked today. Professor Mcgonagall came out behind them and called Neville in to the office and as Harry looked back over his shoulder as he started to walk down the stairs he saw Neville shuffling in nervously and the door closed with a loud bang.

The corridors were silent as all the students were now waiting in their common rooms and as Harry and Lupin made their way back top Gryffindor Tower, Lupin explained about what had happened to the Dursleys that afternoon. Petunia and Dudley had been to the doctor's surgery on the High Street in Little Whinging as Dudley had a cold when a death eater used the imperius curse to lure them in to an alleyway. Luckily Arabella Figg had been following them and was able to raise the alarm before they had been tortured to badly.

"From what the Ministry has been able to work out the death eater's orders were to kill only you Aunt and cousin but he decided to have a bit of … fun with them beforehand".

"The cruciatus curse" Harry mumbled "Who was it … the death eater I mean. They caught him then if you know what his orders were".

"Ah well that's where it gets a bit confusing Harry. The death eater was Randall Zeller".

"The ministry worker who went missing in the summer?"

"Yes. He is in St Mungos at the moment under Ministry guard having tests run as he's not quite right … the healers think he's been under the Imperius curse and forced to do what he did but the Ministry wants to be sure. By all accounts he was acting completely mad when they first found him. Tried to physically take a few chunks out of the aurors after they had de-wanded him and he used to be such a calm, placid man Harry. The curse has addled his mind if you ask me; he would never have hurt a fly before".

"Why attack the Dursleys though?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore thinks that Voldemort has worked out how to break your protection spell by removing your blood bond by killing your only living blood relatives. He was worried this might happen which is why he has still had the Order keeping an eye on your Aunt".

"Dementors and death eaters were in Little Whinging over the summer" Harry added thinking aloud.

"That was when Dumbledore realised they weren't just looking for you. He tried to warn Petunia but she wasn't having any of it, she was always stubborn".

"Does this mean I don't have to go back to the Dursleys next summer?" Harry grinned hopefully and Lupin smiled back.

"No you will have to spend a little time with them it just wont be at Privet Drive anymore. The house was protected to a certain degree before so you were safe while you were there and that why there were sightings all over the town as they couldn't find you. But now they are looking for your family as well its not safe for any of you to be there anymore".

Harry's face was turned looking at Lupin and as they wandered round a bend in the corridor he walked straight through Nearly Headless Nick who was patrolling the hallway. The sudden icy blast made him shiver as Nick tutted and moaned to Lupin about the perils of being non corporeal then floated away down the corridor.

"Nothing changes" Lupin smiled softly and they continued towards the Tower. The Dursleys had been moved to another house but Dumbledore was not saying where, just that Vernon Dursley had not been very happy about it. Harry was very curious as to how they had been able to convince his Uncle to move in the first place but was unable to ask as they arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Everyone is inside waiting" she announced solemnly to Lupin as she swung open to let them in.

Usually after a Quidditch match when Harry entered common room it was to loud bangs and cheers but this time there were just odd whispers then silence as everyone stopped talking and looked to Harry and Lupin for news.

"Professor Mcgonagall will be here shortly" Lupin announced to the room. "You are all to remain here until she arrives and you will be told more then". Turning to face Harry he spoke in a lowered voice. "I have to get back; I will see you later but don't worry about your Aunt they are fine just a bit shocked".

As Lupin left the room Hermione, Ron and Ginny rushed over as Gryffindor students started shouting out questions. "What's happened Harry?" "Why did they want you and Neville?" "Is the rumour true has there been another attack and a whole wizard family is dead?" "You haven't got any family left have you?"

"What?" Harry replied completely confused. "What rumour? Who's dead?"

"Euan overheard Professor Snape telling Hagrid someone was dead but he didn't hear a name" Hermione explained. "Everyone is panicking because we aren't allowed to go and send any messages and it wasn't just you and Neville called either. A couple of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were called out too".

"Surprisingly no Slytherins though" Ron added sarcastically. "Why were you called anyway?"

"The Dursleys were attacked but they are okay" Harry explained.

"Pity" Ron added.

"Ron!" Hermione said slapping his arm.

"Where's Neville?" Ginny asked.

"With Dumbledore I think … he went in after me".

"Did Dumbledore mention why Neville was there too?" Ginny added quietly.

"No and I didn't get a chance to ask".

"Shush" Hermione hissed as the portrait swung open and Professor Mcgonagall came in followed by Professor Lupin. All the Gryffindor students had stopped talking and were looking at Mcgonagall waiting for her to speak.

"She's been crying" Hermione whispered.

"As you have all heard already, I am sure; there have been a number of attacks today within the magical community. The Aversham family in Ravenclaw are currently in St Mungos as are a number of aurors" Professor Mcgonagall paused and looked sadly around the room and Harry noticed she never mentioned the Dursleys'.

"Unfortunately one of our own has also been touched by these tragic events today and it is my sad duty to inform you that Neville's Grandmother and Aunt and Uncle have been killed defending a muggle-born friend. I have ask you all to be supportive and compassionate when Neville feels able to return to classes and Gryffindor Tower as he is on his own now and is going to need all his friends. Seamus and Dean could you go and put Nevilles things in his trunk and bring it down for me please?"

As Seamus and Dean rushed up the stairs closely followed by a number of other boys who wanted to help, Hermione went over to talk to Professor Mcgonagall.

"The poor thing…" Ginny kept muttering over and over again.

"I wonder where he'll go." Ron asked Harry.

"Haven't got a clue" Harry replied sadly "But I know just how he's feeling right now and I don't think I'd want to come back here either".

"He's still got his parents though" Ginny added quietly.

"Has he?" Harry sighed. "We all saw them in St Mungo's they don't know he exists. He may as well be an orphan now".

A few minutes later Hermione pushed her way back over to the corner to let them know she was going back to Dumbledore's office with the professors to see if Neville wanted her to stay with him for the night. Ron didn't look to happy but he didn't say anything. As the portrait door closed and students started drifting off towards the dormitories Harry made his way upstairs. The Quidditch victory was now a vague memory that no one now felt like celebrating and he suddenly had the urge to sit down and go through his trunk and look at Sirius' belongings that he had brought with him from Grimmauld Place.


End file.
